Digimon Adventure 04
by YukiraKing
Summary: Three years have passed since D03, and things aren't as at peace as Gennai lead them to believe. What is going on at camp, and what will the Digidestined need to do to return to the peace they sacrificed so much for?
1. Back to the Beginning?

**Y/N: **Digimon Adventure 04! Wooo! It's finally here! Okay, I'll run through my list of characters, just as a reminder. I'm Taichi, Koushiro, Mimi, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken, so I'll be tackling their chapters. Urazamay has a monstrosity of an author's note, so I'll keep mine short. I just want to say I'm thrilled to be back on an Adventure story, and hope we can live up to your expectations… You all seem pretty excited to be honest, and I'm kind of nervous about posting the chapter…but I hope you enjoy it, and I hope to hear from you in a review! (not necessary exactly, but still thoroughly exciting to receive)

**U/N: **Sooo... Here it is! Digimon Adventure 04 :D Please review... please? All that stuff I talked about before will happen if you don't.-_- Crazy lava demons destroying your first born child and so on.

So we're writing this one as we go... and because of this you can give insight and help us along in a sense. We had the story planned, but a message was sent to us AFTER the last story was up and told us that we didn't give Daisuke, Ken and Miyako enough respect... this would have been nice to know before so we could have fixed it. We have plot arcs for each character, some will last longer than others, and some will be just a conversation long... but everyone's got their story-and we tried to let Miyako, Ken and Daisuke shine in this story (along with Michael and Willis, but no one seems to care about them...) We've also been asked to make Daisuke more mature... and he will be... but you have to know that this IS his character—his crappy jokes, his pathetic thought process... he still is the leader, but also an idiot. Even in the epilogue, just the way he... is. You can tell he's still fun and childish. He owns a noodle cart for goodness sake. But yes, he's more mature I think. You should also know that if there's something you don't like, such as Taichi being a total LOSER to his sister in the last story... don't fret it will be resolved soon enough... mostly.  
We're trying to include other characters, such as the Digidestined's family and friends, so let us know how that's going as we progress.

I do realize you're all going to have high expectations for this story because 03 was, if I do say so myself, amazing, so I hope this lives up to those expectations.

We're kind of writing it TV show style... as in different plot arcs all intertwined around the main story line... i think it's really cool. The first arch will be kind of slow, but soon enough this story will become really epic... I hope.  
Not much more to say about this chapter, so i guess... just enjoy and sorry about the long authors note.  
I'm writing as Yamato, Sora, Jou, Takeru, Hikari, Willis, Kurayami, and of course... Michael. -_- I think I might try to make him likeable this time...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 01: Back to the Beginning?**

_**Iori:**_

"Are you sure this isn't going to be awkward?" I asked for the fourth time.

"No, why would it be?" Miyako said with a laugh.

"Because this is a date…and I'm not dating either of you," I pointed out.

"Yes, we realize that," Ken said. "But we're not going to make you go by yourself. I mean we were headed that way anyway."

"It just feels weird to me," I commented. They were going on a date, celebrating three whole years in their relationship, and I was going to be there…all because my mom mentioned that I was going to see this one movie, by myself. I mean seriously, I was sixteen. It was bad enough that my mom asked Takeru to walk me to school when Miyako stopped going—she graduated, she didn't drop out! But she didn't want me walking alone where I could get hit by a car, but Takeru wasn't such a stickler to the rules, and allowed me to walk on my own whenever I wanted. But now I couldn't even go to a movie by myself? What was I doing, aging backwards?

I mean, what if I was secretly going to meet a date of my own at the theatre? Now I had two overprotective—yes, they were still over protective…they just were a _little_ bit better about it—friends with me.

Of course I wasn't sneaking out for a date…I gave up on that after a terrible start. Add in the fact that I can't even think about dating without thinking about being kicked out of the digital world for the rest of my life…talk about a bad day.

I was meeting Natsuni of course, but that didn't count. She was my best friend. I'd finally found someone my own age I was able to get along with. It was a miracle, I know.

"It won't be too bad," Ken said. He seemed too relaxed about this to me. It was their third anniversary, didn't that warrant some privacy? Or at least the desire _for_ some privacy?

"Yeah," Miyako agreed. "We're going out again tomorrow anyway. We just planned a nice relaxing anniversary anyway, what with him going to school in the fall, and me finally getting two weeks off for vacation."

Miyako had started working at her parent's convenience store after she graduated, after that near panic attack in New York, she decided that she didn't want some fabulous career, she wanted love and she wanted family, and she had both now. Ken was much more understanding than anyone would have thought, but he got to keep seeing her on a daily basis, so there wasn't too much arguing on his part.

"Okay…" I sighed.

"Who are we meeting anyway?" she asked with a sly smile and a wink. "You finally cave to Noriko?"

Yeah, funny story actually. After I'd gotten over her, and finally moved on in my life—aside from the whole no-dating-ever policy—and she'd gone through five or six boyfriends all in the course of a year or less, she decided that _I_ was the perfect guy for her.

And that would have been great…before she crushed my dreams and made me associated the lack of digital presence in my life with dating and heartbreak. But now all I felt when I was around her was uncomfortable. Who stalks people anyway? She was worse than Daisuke with Hikari. She just popped up out of nowhere all the time, and—since she was popular, and popular kids can do this—she turned just about every girl at school against Natusni, since she's my best friend and Noriko swears she's my girlfriend and wanted to break us up. No matter how many times I try to tell her that "Natsuni and I are just friends!" she doesn't believe me. I suppose that has to do with the fact that I use Natsuni as an excuse for why I can't go out with her… "Sorry, Natsuni and I have a project for history due tomorrow and we need to work on it." "Sorry, Natsuni and I were going to watch the entire previous season of '_insert name of television show here'_ before the new season airs next week." "Sorry, I just like hanging out with Natusni better than talking to you…" You see what I mean?

I was not helping my cause, but there's only so long you can simply say "NO" before they start asking for reasons.

"Never," I said firmly causing Miyako and Ken to smile 'knowingly' at me. It's like they thought they knew what was going on in my head. They thought I secretly still liked Noriko, but they didn't know anything.

"She's been after you for two years now," Ken commented, as though he were talking about the weather.

"To years of pure hell," I said with a nod.

"And she's still into you," Miyako said with a smile.

"Obsessed more like it," I said—okay, I whined. "Did you know she asked my mother if she could help wash my uniform for Kendo? And if she could polish my Kendo equipment."

"You sure she meant the Kendo equipment?" Miyako said suggestively.

"She'd better have," I said with a shudder.

"You're getting defensive," Ken noted. "We just wondered who else we were going on our date with. I don't think you were really going to the movie alone…"

"Maybe I am," I told him. "I'm an introvert. It sounds like something I might do."

"But you're not," Miyako said with that darn knowing smile. "Who is she?"

"You've got a date?" Ken asked a little shocked by Miyako's 'discovery'.

"It's not a date," I told them rolling my eyes. "We're only going so we can analyze the film and then compare it to the original…"

"So it's that Ando girl then?" Miyako said with a disappointed sigh. Even _Miyako_ didn't think we were dating…and she's completely the type to do so. So why did Noriko assume we were?

"Natsuni Ando, yes," I said simply. "I just didn't tell mom, since she nearly freaked at me the last time."

"Thought you were dating?" Ken guessed.

"Brought out her camera to document it and everything," I said with a wince.

"Ouch," Ken said.

"Ouch what?" Miyako said with a laugh. "Your mom did pretty much the same thing."

"But I was _actually_ dating you…" Ken pointed out.

"We're here," I announced, ignoring their trip down memory lane. I hoped they weren't going to be too lovey-dovey all night…but as it _was _an important date, I figured I was out of luck.

"Iori!"

I turned to see Natuni waiting for me by the streetlamp we'd claimed a year ago as our meeting point for all of these covert meetings.

"You brought company?" she asked raising her eyebrow.

"My mom assigned them," I said with a slightly over dramatic sigh.

"I suppose our robbery attempt will have to wait another day," she said with a sigh just as dramatic. "And I'd brought my ski mask and everything."

"Shucks," I said. "And I was really looking forward to it to."

"You guys are weird," Miyako commented.

"Why thank you Miss. Inoue," Natusni said bowing slightly as a sign of respect. She talked like that all the time with anyone except me. The idea was being overly respectful and talking like they did in movies set in the middle ages or something.

"It's Miyako, please," Miyako insisted.

"Alright Miss. Inoue," Natusni said much to Miyako's dismay. "I see you've had to bring Iori on your date with Mr. Ichijouji. I do so hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience."

"I repeat, you guys are weird," Miyako said.

We started laughing, and got our tickets, while Ken paid for both his and Miyako's—only after swearing he'd let her pay for the popcorn—and headed in for the movie.

_**Yamato:**_

I watched awkwardly as dad rushed into the kitchen and took a deep breath.

"I can _do_ this!" He growled, trying to boost his confidence, "I can... I can't Yammy..."

Sora had just entered the room with two glasses of water and she burst out laughing as she placed one glass in front of me and my face turned slightly red. He had to bring back that nickname now didn't he? He hadn't used that name on me since I was six and now that Sora was here he just had to do it? I didn't know how to respond to him though, he was probably right. He couldn't do this. And I was wrong to set it up this way—but at the same time it was for me, not for him, he didn't have to do anything right.

I had set up a dinner at my dad's apartment to celebrate summer, to celebrate my third successful year at university—a halfway point for me. I was pretty proud of myself. I invited Sora of course who hadn't even told her mother yet that she was back. She wasn't on speaking terms with her so she was staying in the spare bedroom here, so even if I didn't want her to come—which I did—she would have to come—either that or I could have locked her in her room and risked being dumped on the spot. I would never do that to her though. Also, Takeru would have come to her rescue after a while of hearing her screaming and banging on the door for help... I had invited Takeru too, but neither Sora or Takeru were who my father was freaking out about... I also invited my mother.

"You _can_." I lied instinctively. "You're a skilled... something or other... I'm sure you have some skills in the arts of talking to girls. You're _my_ dad, Dad. If I can flirt with hundreds of girls, then so can you."

Sora shot me a very daring glare and then spoke to my dad, "Love can come from anywhere." Sora said. I picked up the glass of water Sora had placed in front of me and began drinking to hide the fact that I couldn't think of anything to compliment my father on. "And you see, the two of you already have some chemistry so—"

"I'm cutting you off." Dad said, "You're a lovely girl Sora, and I look forward to the day that you bare my son's children," The glass of water slipped from my hand as I spit the contents all over the table and the water remaining in the glass landed in my lap, "but I'm not trying to fall in love with Yamato's mother."

"I see..." Sora said, looking away from my father awkwardly and taking her finger and swirling her hair.

"Is this tie ok?" Dad asked pointing to his red and green striped tie.

"Why do you care?" I asked. "I thought you weren't trying to impress?"

"I'm not trying to fall in love—but I always dress to impress."

Sora smirked, it was clear she was relating my father's personality to my own—that was exactly something I would say. "It's too Christmas-y." Sora said, "With your complexion you want a dark blue, and tuck your shirt in."

Dad smiled, "You picked the right girl son!" He ran from the room as he hastily tucked his shirt in.

"I'm sorry..." I said slowly, trying to hold in my laughter. "He gets a little weird sometimes."

"It's alright." Sora smiled, "But... I do have something I need to tell you."

"What's that?" I asked her.

"You're dressed to casually." Sora sighed, "Do you ever take off that jacket?"

"I actually own thirty-four leather jackets and each of them are different from the last." I defended.

Sora laughed, "Also, you dropped your water."

"I know." I laughed, "I remember..."

"It looks like you've peed your pants." Sora said flatly.

"Oh..." I said slowly as the two of us started laughing.

There was a knock on the door and I heard my dad scream from his bedroom. "Kill me now!"

"Keep doing those breathing exercises we talked about!" Sora advised as I rushed out of the kitchen and hopped over the couch to get to the front door. I threw the door open excitedly, smiling.

Mom stood in the doorway in a black dress next to Takeru who was dressed even more casually than I was. Mom looked a bit distressed as she held her purse tightly in her hand and Takeru was grinning widely. "Hey Yamato!"

I placed out my hand to shake his, but he smacked it out of the way and hugged me forcefully, pushing me back slightly. "Hello Takeru—" I gasped through gasps for breath. "Hey mom..."

"Good evening Yamato..." She smiled, "It's good to see you. How was school?"

"It was great," I said hurriedly, "Let's not talk about that though—it's summer! That's exciting! Let's be happy about it!"

"Where's Dad?" Takeru asked looking around.

"Picking the perfect tie." I said, rolling my eyes. Mom chuckled at that and stepped into the apartment with much more confidence than before.

Takeru let his eyes scan the apartment and nodded approvingly. "I do believe this is the very first time I've seen this apartment clean..."

"Sora cleaned it."

"Sora's here?"Mom asked.

I nodded, "In the kitchen, c'mon... I'll introduce you."

"Hey, Yamato..." Takeru said grinning, "You have a little accident there...?"

I looked down and groaned. "I spilled water Takeru."

"Sure you did." Takeru laughed.

I rolled my eyes and led Mom and Takeru back into the kitchen where Sora was sipping her water. At the sight of my mother she quickly placed her glass on the table and jumped to her feet. "Miss Takaishi!" Sora said stepping toward my mother and bowing politely. "It's good to see you again."

My mother smiled and placed her hand on her heart, "She's beautiful..." She smiled to me, tears in her eyes and I just sighed.

"I know." I said.

Takeru and Sora burst out laughing.

"Last time I saw you..." Mom started, "Sora, you were a little tomboy heading off to save the world. You've become a very respectable woman."

I kind of wanted to change the subject—my mom didn't really know Sora... she had seen Sora all of twelve seconds ago, but she didn't know her, so in no way could she make that judgement. She was right of course. Sora was wonderful.

"Natsuko..." Dad said slowly appearing behind Mom and Takeru in the kitchen doorway.

Mom spun around, "Hiroaki!" she said awkwardly. "Is... dinner ready?"

"Ask Yamato..." Dad said, "He's cooking."

Takeru shot me a very worried look and I couldn't help but smile. I often played tricks on him in my cooking, but other than all of that I generally knew how to cook a decent meal, and as far as I was concerned the food I had prepared was a perfectly delectable meal. Other than Takeru's portion.

"Yes, it's all set out on plates on the counter—I'll set the... table." I said awkwardly as I set the plates out on the table strategically.

Mom sat down next to Sora who was next to me and then Dad pulled out his usual seat but Takeru slipped in there.

"You want to sit next to Mom... right dad?" Takeru asked.

"No—what?" I said quickly doing my best to make Takeru move to his seat. "Sitting across from each other will create a much more romantic atmosphere!"

"Then I'll sit here." Dad said quickly falling into Takeru's seat.

I rolled my eyes at Takeru as he grinned triumphantly.

"So, how is your mother feeling about your new fashion career choice?" Mom asked Sora happily.

"I wouldn't know." Sora said. "I haven't talked to her in a while. She's trying to take control of my life."

"She just cares too much." Mom said sincerely. "I would know. I'm a mother. You'll understand one day when you're a mother... will that be soon?"

"Mom!" I insisted.

"I was just wondering!" Mom laughed. "So..." She slowly turned toward Dad as Takeru, Sora and I awkwardly began eating the meal I had prepared. It wasn't much—just curry and rice.

"This is really good..." Sora said quietly to me.

"It really is..." Takeru agreed, "I'm happy to eat food that's not out to get me."

"What have you been up to?" Mom asked Dad.

"The usual... you?"

"Oh my job changes all the time." Mom said almost boastfully, "I'm always writing about something new and exciting."

"Like that article on the Historical Significance of Toilet Paper?" Dad joked.

"You read that?" Mom asked, embarrassed.

"I read all of your articles." Dad smiled, then realizing what he had said, "Because there's nothing better to do."

"Oh?" Mom asked smirking almost foolishly. Takeru and I exchanged almost disgusted glances at one another as we sat in silence listening to our parents flirt. Sora however was smiling widely, so happy that love seemed to be brewing.

"I'm done." Takeru said, "Is there any cake?"

"I did make cake actually..." Sora said quickly.

"Hurray!" Takeru cheered.

"But then," Sora said rounding on me, "Someone threw a band party and all the cake just vanished."

"No!" Takeru groaned.

"I swear I didn't eat it—" I said honestly, "It was all—"

"Why aren't you eating?" Mom asked Dad

"Oh... right..." Dad said scooping a large amount of rice onto his spoon and then shoving it in to his mouth.

"So..." I said quickly, "The clouds are pretty... white today."

"What are you—?" Sora started, but she was cut off as my dad jumped to his feet and screamed, spitting the rice back onto his plate and running toward the water faucet.

"What did you do?" Mom asked me strictly.

"I swear it was meant for Takeru..." I laughed. Takeru fell back out of his chair because he was laughing so hard and even Mom and Sora began laughing. It felt good to be surrounded by the people I loved... my family—and although Sora wasn't technically my family... she still counted in my mind. Life was turning out pretty darn good...

_**Taichi:**_

"I'm home!" I shouted coming through the door. It sure felt great to be back. School was much more difficult than I thought it ought to be. Then again, I'd let Yamato choose what I was doing, which _did_ kind of make it harder.

Not to say that I wasn't enjoying it. I had a great friend to struggle through the classes with, Rei Saiba. And I'd finally decided to try my hands at dating again. I'd been out with a handful of girls, only one or two dates at a time, but it was a start. I just didn't click with any of them like they seemed to think I would. And I was wary of them anyway. I didn't know how to handle commitment just yet, and they weren't worth the risk to be honest.

Hikari had actually ordered me to try it. Something about me putting her happiness before my own being unhealthy for me…and that I should put our happiness at equal levels at least.

"Taichi!" mom shouted happily running to the doorway from the kitchen and tackling me in a big hug. "I've missed you so much. I'm glad you're home."

"I'm happy to be back," I assured her. "Unless of course my welcome involves a spinach pudding…."

"It's ochre actually," she said with a small glare.

"That's so much better," I said through a forced smile.

"I thought so too," she said happily, before leading me to the kitchen. "Would you like to taste it?"

"I think I'll wait for dessert. I don't want to spoil my appetite. We're probably having strawberry sauce with pork chops or something, and I just _don't_ want to ruin that," I said thinking quickly.

"Strawberry sauce and pork chops? Don't be ridiculous," she said with a laugh. "We're having ham with raspberry-pear sauce darling."

"Great!" I said with as much fake enthusiasm as I could muster. "With rice too?"

"As always," she said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could at least get my fill with that. "I've got a great big pot on."

I looked to the stove and sure enough, the biggest pot she owned was simmering away, making nice fluffy rice…a little too much fluffy rice…more than that even. Twice as much as normal.

"Mom, even if it's a celebration, don't you think this is a little much?" I asked.

"Oh no dear," she said. "With as much as boys eat, I'm afraid I might not be enough."

"I don't eat that much," I said in a huff. "I'm going to drop my bags off in my room and check on Hikari. I'll be back."

"Oh, Taichi, wait!" she shouted after me, but I kept going anyway.

"Calm down, I'm just going to my room," I yelled back, rolling my eyes. In the hallway, I heard a strange sound—strange because Hikari didn't like rock music. The closer I got to my room, the louder the music seemed to get. I opened my door and was met by a horrendous sight. Daisuke was dancing around in his underwear, playing with his cell phone. I walked over to the stereo and turned the power off. He turned to look at me in surprise.

"Oh, hi Taichi!"

"What are you doing in my room?" I asked him, tossing a pair of pants that I found on the floor at him. "In your underwear."

"Oh, I live here now," he said as if it were nothing.

"You live in _my_ room…where my sister also lives? My baby sister?" I asked him, a glare settling on my face.

"No, no," he said quickly using his hands to exercise his point. It calmed me down a little bit, but I still didn't like it. "She sleeps in your dad's old office now."

"Let me get this straight, you _kicked_ my sister out of her room?" I asked. "My _sick_ baby sister? What kind of dirt bag are you?"

"Put some pants on Daisuke," a frail feminine voice said from behind me. I whirled around and found myself face to face with Hikari. "And he didn't kick me out Taichi. I'm glad you're home."

"I'm glad you're up," I said giving her a hug. The last time I called, she'd been bedridden. I was frantic while taking my final exams.

"Daisuke's been taking care of me," she explained. "Mom can't be with me all the time and _I_ can't be in the house all day every day. Daisuke stays here and keeps me sane. And he takes me out to visit our friends too. He even took me to the doctor's office when mom was busy."

"That's nice of him…" I said though I wasn't so sure I agreed with it. Daisuke was doing everything _I_ was supposed to be doing. Why did I have to go to school in Tokyo? Why couldn't I have just waited until Hikari was stable...?

_Because you know as well as she does that that might never happen…_

"It is, isn't it?" Hikari said happily. "Daisuke, Takeru invited everyone over tomorrow, you know before you guys start your summer jobs."

"So he's not going to be here daily during the summer?" I asked, hardly believing my luck. I'd get to be her brother again, instead of that imposter.

"Yeah, Takeru, Ken, Miyako and Daisuke are working at your old camp," she explained. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"Yeah," I said half-heartedly. The mood in the room sobered as we all thought back on our digital partners.

"You still aren't wearing pants," I pointed out after awhile, before leading Hikari out of our—no, not anymore—_my _room. I closed the door on him, so he could get himself decent. "Why exactly does he live here?"

"I told you, he's here to take care of me. That's all he says whenever I ask him," she said. "I just trust that to be true. And it's really sweet of him, don't you think?"

"You don't think he's just trying to win some brownie points, do you?" I asked, almost growled.

"Oh no," she said quickly. "I don't think he's given up completely," she paused to have a bit of a coughing fit. "But I think he's got a bit of a think for Kurayami now…so he's not so overbearing about it."

"That's a small comfort," I said with a sigh. "I don't like it though. Him being here all the time, dancing around in his underwear, it's not right. And now you even sleep in an office. What all did I miss while I was at school?"

"Not too much actually," she said. "I moved to the office, because it's closer to the living room and the kitchen, so I didn't have to walk as far. Sometimes it's harder than others to do that you know. And Daisuke is always around whenever mom can't be, so if I fall over someone can help me. The same happens when I collapse or black out. I'm not alone. And it's nice, having my own room. I don't have to go to the bathroom to change anymore, and I can decorate it however I want to. Dad got a new computer for in there, and moved his to his and mom's room, so I can email you and Willis and Mimi and all of you at school…and Michael if I feel inclined to."

"That's good. I feel bad about not being there for you," I told her.

"Dinner's ready!" mom called.

"'Kay," I shouted back.

"You shouldn't feel bad, Taichi," she said softly, resting her hand on my arm. "Daisuke's here for me whenever I need him. You shouldn't trouble yourself."

And it hit me hard, hearing her say it like that. I had been replaced.

_**Mimi:**_

"You have your toothbrush, right?" Michael asked for the fourth time.

"I have three different ones packed, I'm fine on toothbrushes. Can you pass me that book? I might need it," I told him, pointing to the recipe book that was on my bedside table.

"You make up your own recipes Mimi," Willis pointed out. "Why take the book."

"Inspiration," I said. "Ideas, the basics, whatever you want. A recipe book will be very helpful. Besides, it's just a book on flavours. What goes good together, that sort of thing."

"Are you going to study more over there?" Michael asked, passing me a stuffed flower he'd got me at a carnival after I saw it and started crying over Palmon again.

"Yes, I'd like to branch out into Japanese cuisine," I said, stuffing my toy into my suitcase next to my make-up kit.

"I'll have to visit and see how that's coming along then," Michael said with a laugh.

"You'd come to visit me anyway though, right?" I asked, suddenly fearing his answer.

"Of course," Michael kidded. "Dad's jet would get rusty if I didn't."

"Yeah, yeah," Willis said. "You'll just miss her too much not to."

"And you wouldn't?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I visit all the time to be with Hikari," he said. "It'd be a cinch to go and visit you too."

"Good," I said. "I'm going to miss you two so much."

"We _are_ awesome," Michael joked.

"And I'll miss Tatum too of course," I added, noticing his flinch. The two must be off again right now. It would only be a few weeks before they were back together. Maybe even less with me out of the picture. The two of us got along alright, but Tatum I think was jealous of Michael's and my relationship. I was pretty sure she thought we were more than friends at some point, which just isn't true, but then again, everyone at school was shocked when Michael and Tatum showed up hand in hand. They were 'comforting' me for hours before they accepted my story.

"And the rest of my friends, and the other American digi-destined too," I added in a rush. "I was thinking of going around to say goodbye, but I'm running out of time. Do either of you have my hairbrush?"

"You've already packed it," Willis said. "It's in the side pocket, with your straightening and curling irons. You didn't pack that one that makes your hair all eighties-like."

"Huh?" I asked, before comprehension dawned on me. "Oh, that's the crimper. I thought I'd packed that. And what about my curlers? I have my hair products too right? I've got my make-up, and all of my clothing, except for my school uniforms. Maybe I should bring them. I could make them into something else? Or get Sora to do it. What do you think?"

"Will it fit?" Michael asked. Neither boy looked to be sure of what answer I was looking for.

"Of course it will. I've got another suitcase I can bring. Mom said she'd rather me just take it all at once, than have her try and pack it up to send to me," I explained. "What are you guys doing now?"

"Going to visit Hikari like always," Willis said. "I don't have anything past that planned."

"Dad wants me to get into acting, and I have to say that would be so freaking awesome," Michael said. "He's got some auditions I could go to as well. I just need an agent, he says. He suggested getting your dad to take the job, so it would be within the 'family', or something like that."

"Talk to him," I suggested. "Did I pack _any_ socks?"

"Well, your socks are all in that giant drawer over there, right?" Willis said, pointing to my overflowing sock drawer. It appeared as though I didn't pack any of them at all.

"Right," I said, pulling out my empty suitcase, and tossing my uniforms out of it. I'd add them only if there was enough room. I started throwing my socks in.

"Unless you packed your…er…_undergarments_…before we got here, you haven't packed any of them either," Willis added awkwardly.

"Damn," I muttered. "So it's a no on the uniforms then…."

"I'll bring them over the next time I visit," Willis said with a sigh.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the best!" I screamed as I jumped at him.

"Mimi," mom called. "Don't forget your laptop."

"I'd survive without it, but I should probably take that," I said with a sigh. "I'll put it in my carry-on. And my e-reader, and…what will I do with my DVDs? Why is this so hard?"

"Pack them in a box, and I'll ship them to you," mom said softly. "I'm going to miss you baby."

"I'll miss you too mom," I said. "Can we do the same with my books? There are just too many of them. And I keep thinking of others I want to take."

"Sure," she said, wiping her eyes now that I'd ruined our moment. "Anything else?"

"I don't know yet," I told her. "There's all of my furniture, but I'll have to buy some new stuff, it's too much hassle to ship them over. And I won't have a bed…well, Sora's guest room will, but after that I won't."

"You don't have to go," she said. "You can stay and get into acting, either on stage or in the films, you don't _have_ to go."

"My friends are waiting for me, mom," I told her firmly. "And I've waited long enough to be with them full time. I miss them _so_ much mom. And Jou's going to need me now more than ever. I do have to go. I'm sorry. It doesn't mean I won't miss you, and I do love you, but this is something I _have_ to do."

"Fine," she said grumpily through tears, before storming off.

"She's been like that since I told her I was leaving," I told the boys. "She's such a drama queen, isn't she?"

"I always wondered where you got it from," Willis said with a laugh.

"You'll be there when I go, right?" I asked, suddenly saddened. "I don't think she will be."

"We'll be there," Willis said.

"Until your plane takes off," Michael agreed.

"I'm going to miss you," I said pulling them into a hug. I held them tightly for well over a minute before pulling away. "Bathing suits. I haven't packed my bathing suits!"

_**Jou:**_

"I really didn't get the impression that you cared about Mimi too much." I said slowly as I looked up to the clouds. Koushiro and I had been waiting outside the Airport for twelve hours, occasionally heading in to use the washroom or to grab a snack. We were sitting against the wall of the building, ignoring the roaring sounds of the flying machines. I was doing my best to keep awake—I wasn't caught up on sleep yet from the course of the last school term. I really didn't have time to even think about anything other than strictly homework for ten months a year let alone actually setting time aside to sleep.

"I don't care about Mimi." Koushiro said without any thought. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed, "I mean—I _do_ care about Mimi—about as much as I care about anything else..."

"Like your laptop?" I smirked.

"Well—" Koushiro said, stopping himself from finishing his sentence. "I care about Mimi."

"That's cute... can I tell her you said that?" I asked.

"No!" Koushiro growled.

"Ok—calm down... I was kidding." I said.

"No you weren't." Koushiro said, calm once again as he leaned back against the airport wall and looked up to the sky as if nothing had happened.

"Well I was kinda kidding." I said, "Depending on your reaction."

"Don't tell her." Koushiro demanded.

"I won't..." I sighed, "So what have you been up to over the last year?" I was honestly curious, because of my afore mentioned studies I had not had any time at all to see my friends.

"Well I created a new computer software that allows me to send things to my laptop without an internet connection." Koushiro said.

"That seems pointless..." I said laughing, "When are you ever not with your laptop?"

"Well—you have a point... but if ever I forgot my laptop, or, heaven forbid, someone stole my laptop, I would easily be able to continue working without it." Koushiro explained proudly. It was interesting to see him like this actually. I had known him since he was just ten, and now at the age of twenty—a full ten years later—he was practically the same person only... so much smarter. It was cool to see everyone changing... as the oldest I found myself often comparing myself to their parents and what their parents would have done had they seen what these kids were saying, and then, after a while I realized that they didn't need parents... they were each so independent that they didn't need me—or Sora who also acted rather parental. Taichi had gone from that child so obsessed with being right, and playing soccer to a respectable man in university studying to be... whatever it was he was planning to be. Yamato still hadn't given up his rockstar dream—I had no faith in him... which was ironic given my crest, but he was putting too much faith into this career and not enough into actually getting another—but still he was in university too... all grown up I noticed. Sora had changed her classes to suit her needs now, and was through with her tennis scholarship and now was studying her fashion. I didn't really know what was going on with Mimi and the others were still pretty young, Miyako of course I was also confused about... but I knew she was making choices to fit her specific needs.

"Koushiro..." I said slowly, "Do you ever wish you could just go back?"

"Back where?" Koushiro asked.

"Back..." I tried to clarify. "As in... be kids again?"

"No, never." Koushiro said, "I'm more than content with the way my life has turned out so far. I mean my laptop has lasted over ten years... that's a pretty big accomplishment if you ask me."

The door next to us opened and a herd of people flooded out.

"That's not what I meant." I told him.

"Then what did you mean exactly?" He asked.

"I meant... do you ever want to get rid of the stress of being in control of your own life...? Don't you ever just wish someone else would do it for you again like when we were kids...?"

"No." Koushiro said. Perhaps I was asking the wrong person—I wasn't sure Koushiro had ever not been in control. He was a genius after all and as long as I had known him he hadn't had someone taking care of him. His mother always tried—but he was always one step ahead. "So how is Momoe?"

"Oh—" I faltered and blushed, "She's... good."

"Where is she now?" Koushiro asked.

"She's on a trip somewhere..." I said even slower and more awkwardly, I didn't want him to press into this topic because I wasn't sure if I could keep the secret long enough so I tried to change the subject, "what about...?" I had nothing to change it to!

"Where? When will she get back? How long have you been dating?" Koushiro asked me.

"I think it's Canada... She'll be back sometime this week... A couple years..." I said slowly, fidgeting and looking away from him as if nothing was wrong.

"Is there something you want to tell me Jou?" Koushiro asked me, it was obvious that he saw that something was wrong.

I couldn't hold it in any longer... it was time for me to tell someone... Momoe would have to accept that we couldn't keep it a secret forever—and it's not as if he really cared that much what she thought about him telling someone she was after all... gone now.

"Momoe—"

"HI GUYS!"

We both looked over to the door of the airport where Mimi stood, pink suitcases surrounding her. She was waving dramatically at us, a large smile spread across her face. Her wavy brown hair was longer than ever and it was in a ponytail on the side of her head. She was wearing a pink visor and a brown jacket over top of her pink and blue dress that reached just above her knees. She was wearing... pink cowboy boots.

"Mimi!" I called out excitedly after taking in her appearance. She was still so similar to the old Mimi it wasn't even funny, I hadn't even talked to her yet and I could tell that. I jumped to my feet and ran over to her and hugged her.

"Jou!" She laughed as I picked her up and spun her around. As I set her down she whispered in my ear. "How've you been...? I know it must be tough with Momoe and all..." I had almost forgotten that I had already told Mimi about it. I laughed to myself for a moment and then smiled weakly.

"I'll live..." I told her patting her on the shoulder.

"I'm glad." She smiled, and then looking over my shoulder she rolled her eyes at Koushiro. "Aren't you going to hug me?"

"I'm all the way over here. That seems impossible." Koushiro yelled back.

"Then get your butt over here!" Mimi laughed, but I could tell it was an order. Koushiro pulled himself to his feet and walked over to us and allowed Mimi to excitedly hug him. I smirked at Koushiro's squished face. It was red—either from blushing or from her hugging him so tightly. She pulled away and smiled. "So... let's go?" She asked.

"Yeah... sure." Koushiro smiled as he grabbed a couple of Mimi's bags. I did the same and then followed Mimi who only took one bag, the smallest of course. It felt really good to have Mimi back here in Japan... it was like the old times... only we weren't trying to save the world from the deadly evil monsters... but by this point... I wouldn't care if there were deadly monsters... so long as there were some form of digimon I would be more than content, knowing that I still had some sort of chance to see my friend again. But I knew I didn't. And so I shook those thoughts out of my head and hurried to catch up with Mimi who was trying to guess which vehicle was mine based on shape, colour, and amount of rust. The funny thing is... she got it right.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **chapter two is on its way, where Takeru takes the reins, launching us directly into the story!


	2. A Tear in the CampTime Continuum

**Y/N: **Chapter two! It's a marathon by the way, to apologize for our slow journey through How Iori Met Their Mother…this stuff was supposed to be up awhile ago. Sorry about that, and I hope you enjoy (and review?) the chapter! P.S. CrestofLight asked how long this is going to be, and also guessed our pattern. Like Digimon season 2, this will have 50 chapters (well, the show had episodes, but you get it).

**U/N: **My last authors note was HUGE so i'll just say, "enjoy and review"  
But also that we're going to be putting the chapters up as fast as we can until we're caught up with our planned schedule... so don't expect to much hiatus and gaps.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

******Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 02: A Tear in the Camp-Time Continuum**

_**Takeru:**_

"Be careful," Mom ordered, "Be safe... behave... be nice, be—"

"I get it mom."

Mom had driven me to the summer camp where we had all met so many years ago and every time I tried to escape from the car she would list off another group of things she wanted me to do. So there I sat, next to her in the car for ten minutes as she practically begged me not to go without so much as saying anything of the sort. It felt nice to know she cared about me so much, but at the same time, I was not a kid anymore and there was no need for her to be so protective of me especially now that there were no crazy monsters trying to kill me! All I was doing was spending another week at camp with the others. This was the third week in a row we had gone through the same thing.

I reached for the door handle and then groaned as my mother started talking once again.

"Takeru you be nice to the other children—"

"Mom!" I snapped, "I'm a counsellor. I don't need your advice on what to do. I got this job for a reason. I'm good with kids." I turned to look out the window where I saw that Ken, Miyako and Daisuke were all laughing and looking towards the car. I had told them twice already the story of my mother and her not allowing me to leave. Ever.

"Alright," She said nodding, "I'm sorry... good luck."

"Thank you..." I said reaching once again for the door handle.

"Takeru wait." She said quickly.

"Mom!"

"There's something I must tell you..." She said, ignoring my pleas. "Do you remember last weekend... when the two of us went to Yamato's place?"

"Yes..." I said slowly.

"I—" She changed her mind, "Sora is pretty."

I didn't want to pressure her into telling me whatever it was exactly that she wanted to tell me, and I had all the time in the world for her to build up the courage to let me know so I just nodded, "Yeah she is."

There was a long and awkward pause and then she practically leapt toward me and hugged me. I slowly hugged her back knowing that Daisuke was going to comment on the hug. "I love you Takeru... so much."

"I... love you too." I said awkwardly as she backed up a bit. I reached once more for the door handle and pushed the door of the car open. I smiled as I spun around and placed my feet on the ground.

"Takeru—"

"Mom!" I growled, "I'm fine! I'll behave, I'll be good, I'll eat my vegetables, change my underwear, watch for angry animals—I don't need your guidance! Lay off!"

I looked over my shoulder at my mother who nodded slowly and placed her hands on the steering wheel of the car. "Right..." She said slowly.

"Mom—"

"Just go Takeru." She said calmly. "It's not important anyway."

"I'm sorry..." I said as I stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut. She drove off without saying goodbye, or even waving at all. So I stood and watched as the little blue car left the camp site. I slowly turned to the others and hurried toward them.

I stared at them all, each one of them had smirks on their faces and so I just shook my head and ignored them. I had gotten the four of us jobs here at this camp... I thought it would be a fun summer job. Miyako only agreed to do it because Iori was too little and Hikari was sick... always sick. She was a bit reluctant to be taking on two jobs but I reminded her that if Jou was able to become a Veterinarian and a Doctor at the same time than she could handle babysitting and closing up a shop.

"Takeru I'm sorry!" Miyako called after me as I walked up the hill to the right. I didn't see what she was sorry about really. I didn't mind that they had laughed, I knew they would have, and if it had happened to any of them I would have found it hilarious myself. I just felt really bad for what I said to my mother... even though it was nothing really mean. She clearly wanted to tell me something... I should have comforted her and told her it was alright and that she could tell me. Teenagers suck.

"I'm never having kids." I said over my shoulder to Miyako.

She hurried to catch up to me and laughed, "Pardon? I thought you liked kids..."

"I do." I said slowly.

"Well good because you're working at a summer camp, Takeru..." She said as if I didn't already know where I was working at that moment. I smiled at her but said nothing more on the subject.

"Where are you going? Registration is that way." She said pointing over her shoulder.

"I know where it is." I sighed, "I'm just going up here for a minute.

She twisted her face up in confusion but continued following me anyway. Once we got to the top of the hill I stopped walking and stared toward the cabin in the distance. It was broken now. Mouldy and old. It felt appropriate to have that place be so destroyed. That was, after all where I met the others. Taichi, Sora, Mimi, Koushiro and Jou. I hadn't seen any of them besides Sora in such a long time that it felt almost symbolic of our friendship. I mean, I loved Miyako and the others, but I did miss them. I turned around and smiled as the sun rose across the horizon.

"Why here?" She asked, staring at the sunrise with me. "Why do you come up here every week before Registration? What's so special up here? I mean it's pretty but—"

"This is where I got my digivice..." I said walking toward a spot a little ways over. "Right here. It fell from the sky."

"Really?" She asked, smiling, "That's a much cooler way than I got mine."

"Yeah... I guess it is." I said. She elbowed me playfully.

"We should get—"

"And right there." I said, cutting her off and pointing toward the sunrise. "Just off the edge of the hill... that's where I first went to the digital world."

"Takeru, it won't do to dwell on the past. We can't go back." She said placing her hand on my shoulder. I didn't look away from the sunrise though... I didn't want to believe that. It had been so long since we'd gone... I couldn't even remember how many years it had been... I was such a terrible friend to Patamon... but that didn't matter. As Miyako had said... we weren't allowed back.

"I know." I told her, finally tearing my eyes away from the spot I had first come to the world where I met my best friend. "I know... let's go to registration."

I turned around and saw that Ken and Daisuke were standing at the top of the hill, waiting for us. It was then that I noticed how different we all were... Daisuke and Ken had literally grown up. They were taller and just generally bigger, they even looked more mature—though Daisuke still had that cheesy grin on his face. Miyako was wearing another sundress—she didn't look like the little girl anymore, she looked beautiful. We were all growing up like normal humans were supposed to... and without our digimon. Maybe it was better this way... that we didn't have them... keeping us anchored to our childhood.

I shook my head sharply to rid myself of that thought as Miyako reached out and grabbed my hand. I smiled at her as she led me toward Daisuke and Ken, the latter of which was giving me the evil eye. But I knew I had nothing to worry about, I was not trying to steal Miyako from him, and he knew it too I was sure.

Growing old was always something that I had looked forward too, I just always assumed Patamon would be there growing into an old mon alongside me.

"What's up with him?" Daisuke asked Ken as if I wasn't there. All eyes turned to Ken who was still staring down at Miyako's hand as it intertwined with my own. I rolled my eyes at him and pulled my hand free of her grasp.

"I dunno." Ken answered finally, satisfied that I wasn't holding hands with his girlfriend any longer. "Takeru, what's up?"

"Nothing." I lied, but I could tell the others knew I was lying so I added, "it's not important."

"if it's important to you than it's important to us." Miyako smiled.

"It's just that—" I tried.

"I'm going to call Kura," Daisuke cut me off as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "You guys want to hear?"

"You're not supposed to bring phone's to camp Daisuke." Miyako scoffed. She looked to me and saw that I was clearly not going to continue what I was saying, "But yeah—yes I want to hear."

"Ok!" Daisuke grinned as he dialled Kurayami's phone number and put it on speaker phone. The sound of a phone ringing sounded three times before there was a click.

"What do you want from me?" Kurayami's cold voice shot through the speakers of his small grey phone. Daisuke laughed.

"You always know just what to say." Daisuke smiled. "Hey listen—"

"Don't tell me what to do." She sternly. "You know I don't like being on speaker phone."

"You're not on speaker phone." Daisuke lied.

"Yeah. Sure." She said. She clearly did not believe him. "I will repeat myself, what do you want from me?"

"Well a bunch of us are hanging out next weekend and we were wondering if you wanted to hang out too?" Daisuke said smoothly. I was actually impressed with the way he was talking to her, with the rest of us he acted like a complete buffoon.

"No." She said flatly.

"Please?" Daisuke asked.

"No" She repeated. "I don't—one second..." She sighed, "NO GRANDPA!" She yelled out, her mouth away from the phone, "IT'S A FRIEND!"

"I'm her friend!" Daisuke roared triumphantly.

"NO!" Kurayami growled, "HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND! YES... YES IT'S DAISUKE." She cleared her throat and returned. "I can't go."

"Why not?" Daisuke asked.

"I'm allergic to night time." She said smoothly.

"Then we'll go during the day." Daisuke compromised thoughtfully.

"I'll combust."

"You're not a vampire."

"Prove it." Kurayami said, she was clearly enjoying herself and judging by the giant grin on Daisuke's face, he too was enjoying himself.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" he asked her.

"If I come will you stop calling me?" She asked.

"Sure..." Daisuke said as he shook his head 'no' to Miyako, Ken and I.

"You're shaking your head aren't you?" She asked.

"What?" Daisuke gasped, "Psh! Why would I do that?"

"I'll see you this weekend then?" She ignored his feeble attempt at a lie.

If it were possible, Daisuke's smile grew even larger. "I'll see you then."

"Good bye."

"Have a nice day!" Daisuke grinned.

"_Don't_ tell me what to do!" Kurayami growled before the phone clicked and she hung up.

"Since when are we hanging out next weekend?" Miyako asked, but Daisuke ignored her.

"She digs me." Daisuke said brushing imaginary dirt off of his shoulder.

"She digs nothing." Ken said.

"Except a hole in her back yard that she wants to push you into." Miyako added causing Ken and I to burst out laughing.

"Ha, ha, ha..." Daisuke laughed sarcastically. "Laugh all you want, but now I have two girls who love me."

"Two girls?" Ken asked.

"What is he talking about?" Miyako asked.

But Daisuke ignored them again, "Soon they will both come to me and ask me to marry them, and I will have to turn one of them down—break one's heart. And then Takeru—you may have whatever one I don't pick."

"I don't need a rebound—and no other girl is in love with you." I told him.

"Ha! But you admit Kurayami might be?" Daisuke asked.

"Maybe..." I admitted slowly. I didn't want to admit it, but the creepy girl might actually have her own way of showing affection, and that there, that could very well have been it.

"So now, agreed to by Takeru," Daisuke continued, "I have two women who would bow to my every will!" Daisuke hopped up onto a rock and placed his hands on his hips as he started toward the sunrise.

"Miyako doesn't love you." I chuckled.

"No..." Daisuke whined hopping down from his rock and slouching toward me, "I meant Hikari..." Did he really think I didn't notice him hanging off of Hikari since the day I met him?

"She doesn't love you either." Ken said without thought. "She likes Willis doesn't she?"

I clenched my fists and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. I hated Willis. Just the sound of his name made me want to punch small children—ironically, I was at a camp and that could be arranged—but I was just so frustrated with him... Why was Hikari so interested in him? And where was he getting all the money to fly back and forth from America to Japan every month? That was just illogical! So much money of his was going into a pointless cause... Hikari would be mine—wow... I was starting to sound like Daisuke for a moment there.

"What's wrong?" Miyako asked bringing me back out of my thoughts.

"Wrong?"

"You're angry..." Ken pointed out. "You're ready to punch someone..." Ken slowly took a side step behind Daisuke.

"I'm not going to punch anyone." I said, releasing the tension in my hands. "I just... hate..." I didn't want to have to explain to them that I was completely in love with my dying best friend, so I had to come up with a different issue. "Summer."

"You hate Summer?" Daisuke asked.

I nodded.

"Then why are you working at a Summer camp?" Ken asked.

"Ok, I love Summer." I said, "I just hate... this week."

"Why is that?" Miyako asked. And then I didn't have to lie. It was true. This used to be my favourite week of the year—but lately around this time I just got sad... and angry...

"Tomorrow is the anniversary—" I started.

"You're married?" Daisuke asked.

"Of the day I received my digivice." I continued as if Daisuke hadn't spoken, "the day I entered the digiworld for the first time."

"Oh." Miyako said in complete understanding. "That's why..." She slowly looked over her shoulder toward the hill. "Oh Takeru... I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" I asked, "You didn't do anything."

"I'm just saying that I'm sorry you're sad... but like I said. Don't dwell on the past." Miyako smiled.

"Just half an hour ago you were crying about wanting to go back to the digital world." Daisuke laughed.

"Shh!" Miyako hissed, "I'm just trying to give good advice!"

"You stole that advice from Hawkmon, Miyako." Ken pointed out, "That's exactly what he told you before you left the digital world last time."

"I—" Miyako looked to the ground. "I'm just trying to help."

I turned toward her and smiled. "You are helping Miyako... thank you—" I paused. Over Miyako's shoulder, over near the edge of the hill there was something shining... I wasn't sure what it was though. I pushed Miyako gently out of the way and ran straight toward it. I heard the others running behind me as I came to a halt in front of it.

I smiled and turned to Daisuke. "Gimme your phone."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Koushiro is taking control of the next chapter, what will be discovered about the strange tear at the camp? Find out…..tomorrow!


	3. The Key to the Problem?

**Y/N: **Woo! It's Koushiro's debut as narrator this time around. I'm excited about this chapter, mostly because I was writing as him but also because he is such a necessary character to get the discoveries flowing, you know? I hope you enjoy it, and review if you can thanks.

P.S. ….Sorry it wasn't added the day I said it would be. I uploaded it, but I guess I didn't actually add it to the story…I was pretty tired and sick at the time…I'm really sorry if you were waiting for it!

**U/N: **Enjoy... review... stuff like that. Takeru will come to you and eat all of your remaining Easter candy if you don't review. So let's be real here? Takeru or candy? Yeah that's what i thought. Review.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

******Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 03: The Key to the Problem?**

_**Koushiro:**_

"How's your mom?" I asked when we were running out of things to talk about…well…_I_ was. Mimi could talk for hours about just about anything. And for some strange reason, since coming back to Japan, she'd decided I was the one she wanted to talk to.

"Fine," she said shortly. "I think anyway. She still won't talk to me, but it's not like I care or anything."

She did care. I could see that, but I let her be. There was no need to waste words when she wouldn't listen to them anyway.

"Are you sure you don't have a secret girlfriend?" she asked suddenly.

"Wow, you're not changing the subject at all," I said sarcastically.

"Well, you find it awkward to talk about this, and I find it stupid to talk about my mother," she said. "I answered you…."

"I don't have a secret girlfriend," I told her.

"Have you ever had a secret girlfriend?" she questioned.

"Oh yeah, all the time," I said, rolling my eyes. When I noticed she believed me and was starting to get excited, I had to set her straight though. "No, Mimi. I've never had a secret girlfriend."

"A not-secret girlfriend?" she asked.

"No, Mimi," I told her.

"A girl that has shown any interest that you might want to pursue?" she asked desperate for some sort of gossip by that point.

"Not that I'm aware of," I said, looking at her out the corner of my eye.

"A girl that's shown interest where you _don't_ want to pursue?"

"Mimi," I said finally. "Can we talk about something else now?"

"Aw, you've never had a girlfriend, and no girl has shown interest? That's not true," she said firmly. "There's bound to be at the very least twenty girls at your school that have fallen a little bit in love with you over the past two years."

"Not that I've noticed," I told her. My face was an embarrassing shade of red because of her statement. "I don't tend to observe those sorts of things. I'm more interested in facts rather than the fleeting hormonal signals that create crushes and give the illusions of attraction or affection."

"Oh you poor sad boy," she said sadly. "You don't believe in love? You think it's just science."

"No," I said, peeking at her again. "I believe in love. I just think fleeting attractions aren't worth looking into. You need to start off with friendships and work your way up from there. As none of these hypothetical females have attempted to walk down that avenue, I feel this entire conversation is both painfully embarrassing and entirely pointless."

She rolled her eyes. "I've told you about all the guys I've liked and dated," she said with a pout.

_I know, I had to suffer through it._

"Yes, now I can inform anyone what your ideal male is," I said through that twisting feeling in my gut.

"How about Jou and Momoe?" I said to deter her from further uncomfortable topics.

"Did Jou tell you?" she asked with wide eyes.

"About him and Momoe?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. I knew she was one for gossip on our friends love lives, but to seem so excited….

"She's on vacation somewhere without him," I commented. "He tried to tell me, but I haven't really seen him since we went to pick you up at the airport. It is not too difficult, however, to put the pieces together."

"Oh?" she asked with her eyebrow raised.

"Well," I said my face warming. Did she have to look at me so intently? "Jou was really nervous about the whole thing, and didn't really want to talk about it. He tried to change the subject each time I brought her into the conversation. Being very evasive in any case," I concluded. "He didn't even know where she was when I asked him. Now of course it seems that he either just wasn't invited, or was simply left behind. He seemed really uncomfortable talking about it. He also didn't seem too happy, no…he seemed to be more embarrassed."

"Now, what conclusion did you reach?" she asked while smirking.

"I believe with my evidence the conclusion is that they've broken up," I summarized. "Though I can't figure out why he hasn't told us. He _almost_ seemed pleased to tell me but it was strange, and he didn't get around to it anyway, the embarrassment took over. Perhaps he was feeling relief at getting it off of his chest?"

"You're reading way too deeply into this for an uninvolved party," she pointed out.

"You asked me what I thought, and this is how I think," I said blushing and looking away. I also sent a silent curse to my birth parents for providing me with terrible blushing problem.

"Well, as it just so happens, you're—" she started, only to be interrupted by the ringing of my cell phone.

"Give me a second," I told her, pulling it out. It was the ringtone of one of the digi-destined, so I couldn't just ignore it. I looked down at the display. "It's Daisuke."

She seemed just as surprised as me by this.

"Cell phones aren't allowed at camp," she noted, taking the phone from my hand to check that I wasn't lying. I nodded in agreement. She then spun around in her seat, and accepted the call ignoring my protests.

"Hello Daisuke. This is Mimi Tachikawa, what can Koushiro do for you today?" she said with a smile. I almost missed what she said next because the smile was so distracting. But whatever was said, the smile left her face, leaving her with confusion. "This is Takeru? What are you doing on Daisuke's phone? I realize I'm on Koushiro's. I stole it from him…. No he's right here…. You need to talk to him? Is something wrong?"

I held my hand out for the phone, and she relinquished it. She didn't look too happy about it, but she gave it to me.

"Hello Takeru, this is Koushiro," I said into the phone, cutting him off mid rant. Apparently he had a lot of reasons why Mimi needed to give the phone to me.

"Oh, good. We need you to come here," he said.

"To the camp? You want me to _go_ there? You do realize I'm not a child, nor am I an employee, and therefore cannot get onto the premises without express permission," I told him.

"Well, it's either you or a top scientist. There's some sort of tear or something. It's like this shining gash just floating in the sky. Well, it's not very high, I mean I'm looking directly at it without looking up, but it's not touching the ground either…. It's not touching anything really. It's just floating there. I want you to check it out. It seems strange to me, that it showed up at this particular location on this particular day…."

"You think it has something to do with today," I stated, rather than asked. My mind was already whirling. What could it be? It shouldn't be a possibility for it to involve the Digital World, and chances were that it didn't. _But_ we knew that there were more than just Earth and the Digital World in existence. I knew of two more at least….

"I'll be there as soon as I can. Just make sure the supervisor doesn't see me," I told him.

"I'll put Miyako and Ken on that duty. Daisuke can bring you over. I don't want anyone coming across it, so I'll stay where I am. If some kid does see it, I don't want them running at it, in case it's dangerous," he explained.

"Good," I told him. "I'm on my way. Just, don't touch it yourself, alright?"

"Fine," he said. "See you soon."

With that, both of us hung up. We didn't need to waste time on frivolous goodbyes.

"Mimi, can you pass me my laptop?" I asked without thinking. If I had been thinking, of course, I wouldn't have said anything. The reason for this, of course, was flying at face. Mimi slapped me across the cheek as hard as hard as she could.

"Damn it Mimi," I said gently resting my hand on the injured flesh. "I need it to do something for Takeru."

"How do I know that's not an excuse?" she asked me. "You practically live for that thing."

"But I never use it when you're around," I reasoned. Which of course was both the result of my guilt over choosing my laptop during my Kurayami induced 'nightmare,' and self preservation. Angered by that decision, Mimi had taken to slapping me any time I mentioned it. I didn't want to know what she'd do to my most precious piece of technology if I actually thought to _use_ it while she was around.

"I bet you count down the seconds until I leave," she said with a pout.

"I don't Mimi," I told her. "I really don't. I prefer your company to my laptop, honest. But I need it right now, because there's some glitch in the space-time continuum or something that Takeru needs me to check out before innocent camp kids fall into harm's way."

"I don't know if you're being honest or desperate…" she said. "But I'll let you go. I have to get back to Sora anyway. It was nice seeing you, Koushiro."

"Nice seeing you too," I said awkwardly as she hugged me. I still couldn't manage to hug her back, and I think she'd noticed…but she was too kind to tell me it bothered her.

* * *

"I really can't stay too long," I told Takeru when I finally made it to the site. Miyako and Ken had distracted the supervisor expertly, by staging a lover's spat. I could still hear them arguing and they had to be close to a half mile away.

"I know," he said. "But find out whatever you can," he said. "I need to know if it's dangerous…and I need to know if it's digital. I know; you don't have to say it. The Digital World is closed to us forever, but I still _need_ to know."

"Me too," I admitted quietly. "That's where my mind first went, but then I got worried. What if it's connected to the Dark Ocean? We can't have that. I'm going to run some scans, and see what I can find about it. There isn't much else I can do, besides observe it. I can also run a scan on the area, to see if this disturbance is only happening in one location. It'll take awhile to get the results, but when I get them, I'll let you know."

"Thanks," he said.

Before I took my laptop out—which thanks to Mimi I'd hardly been able to use this past week—I stared at the rip. It was mesmerizing. I'd only met to take a glance at it before getting to work.

"Koushiro?" Takeru asked after a few minutes. I must have completely zoned out, as I hadn't even realized how much time had passed.

"Right, I apologize," I said, pulling out my computer to run a few tests. As my computer was working away, I thought it would be best to ask a few questions.

"When did you first see this? When did it appear?"

"I saw it first not five minutes before I talked to you," he said. "I'd say maybe just a minute before I finally got _you_ on the phone."

"Right," I said thoughtfully. "And you didn't notice it earlier?"

"No," he answered.

"And there was nothing different about it? It was the same as it is now?"

"I think so," he said unsure.

"Right," I said. I glanced at my laptop's screen before taking a few steps towards the tear. It wasn't dark matter, like the dark gears or the dark spirals, so it _should_ theoretically have been alright to touch if I felt inclined.

"What are you doing?" Takeru asked in shock.

"I'm testing a theory," I said. "If I die, which based on my observations I won't, tell Mimi she can't destroy my laptop."

He chuckled without humour as I walked towards the tear. I reached out to touch it, but suddenly Takeru was right beside me, grabbing my hand and pulling it away from the rip.

"Don't touch it," he said softly, looking at the shining tear with caution. Just as we were about to step back, the tear started glowing. We fell to the ground, and Daisuke, Miyako and Ken—who must have just gotten away from the supervisor—shouted out in surprise.

Five orbs of bright light formed at the tear, before shooting off in different directions. One landed just five feet from me, in the center of the circle the five of us formed. After the shock of the lights passed, we were able to stand again. No one seemed to want to move toward the strange glowing orb though, and after a moment the glowing subsided.

"What the hell was that?" Daisuke asked. My eyes had yet to leave the spot that light landed.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But I intend to find out."

"It was scary is what it was," Miyako said shakily. "Are you two alright?"

"Fine," I said shortly, ignoring Takeru as he gave a longer answer that would no doubt summarize to be the exact same thing. I rolled my eyes as the four of them started talking animatedly. I wandered over to the spot the light landed.

I cast a wary glance over at the four younger digi-destined, before bending down to examine the shiny object I saw. I didn't take too long to look it over, all I saw was that it was made of copper, and had a strange handle…but it was most definitely a key.

"I'm going to examine this and the scans I took at home," I announced, placing the newly discovered key in the front pocket of my jeans before packing my laptop in its case. "If I'm lucky, I'll have got a scan just what those lights were. Like I said earlier, I'll let you know of my findings."

"I guess it's time to make a big show of making-up," Miyako said to Ken with a flirty smile—even I picked that up. It just goes to show you just how lovey-dovey the two were.

"I can't wait," he said with a sappy smile. I rolled my eyes at that too, before flinging my laptop case over my shoulder.

"Let's just get this over with without causing me any trouble," I suggested.

"What do we do about the tear while we wait?" Daisuke asked.

"Watch over it. Make sure no kids touch it," Takeru answered for me.

"Right," I said. "I don't know what I was thinking. We still don't know what it is exactly, it's not safe for the kids to touch. And in the off chance it _is_ digital, _we_ have had our genetic structure modified already, it might cause damage to them, as it's not a true gateway, if they come in contact with it."

"Will do," Daisuke said, after Ken and Miyako nodded and ran off to have their public make-out—err…I mean make-_up_—session.

All that was on my mind, however, was the key…what was it? Where did it lead? Who did it belong to? And most importantly, were the other four balls of light more keys, or something else, something that would help to solve the puzzle that was forming.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Daisuke takes control next time as the mystery thickens. What are they going to do about it? Find out soon! (And I mean it this time…sorry again!)


	4. Shock, Drop and Go!

**Y/N: **It's Daisuke time. I enjoyed writing this one actually, but it took me awhile, and I wrote some of it while at like two in the morning…I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope Daisuke's character pleases all of you conflicting reviewers! :) Maturing but still the Daisuke we know and love…

**U/N: ** U/N: This was going to be Sora's chapter... but we switched it... so it's my sister again-hurray! I liked this one :D Anyway, enjoy and stuff...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

******Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 04: Shock, Drop and Go!**

_**Daisuke:**_

He hadn't contacted us.

It hadn't been very long. It had only been a few hours, but I was getting antsy. What was it? And why was it making Takeru so spaced out? He was supposed to be leading some of the younger kids on a hike through the forest, but he'd been asked three times, by three different kids, when they were leaving, and he'd responded with "Leaving to go where?"

This "rip" or "tear" or whatever Takeru wanted to call it was _not_ a good thing. It was making everything a lot more difficult than it needed to be. This was mostly because it was giving Takeru hope—not that it really took much to make that kid hope for anything—that the Digital World wasn't going to be closed to us forever. And to make matters worse…his hope was giving me hope, and I didn't know how I'd handle it if that hope was dashed.

So I was just assuming that there was another sort of phenomenon going on here. Maybe there was a rip in that…what did Koushiro call it? Oh, the space-time continuum. That would probably be bad…way worse than the Digital World being open anyway.

Not that I personally could find anything wrong with that happening…

But Gennai probably could. And Gennai was right all the time. That's why_ he_ was a guardian of the Digital World, and we were just trespassers that were sucked into the world to recharge its fundamental bases, a.k.a. the crests.

What a downer. Being told you were just supposed to recharge something you still didn't _exactly _understand. I mean really, what did humility and I have in common anyway? I didn't know what it was, and it just seemed to avoid me—according to Hikari anyway.

Hikari…she would probably want to know about this strange happening before too long.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, intending on calling her, but something stopped me. While sitting on the grass, taking my turn at watch—we literally were switching on the hour to make sure no kids touched this thing…I think Takeru was getting a _little_ too into this…and I'd been sitting there for fifty minutes, doing nothing but stare at this weird floating tear in the universal make-up—something happened. The tear sparked. Literally. What looked like bits of lightning spurted out of the tear, causing me to drop my phone in surprise.

So much for calling Hikari.

I had to get some help.

"Takeru!" I shouted. He wouldn't be too far. When those kids managed to get him to go on that hike, I was almost sure that he was walking a loose circle around the tear so as to be helpful if necessary.

"Daisuke? Is it important?" Came his response.

"Pretty important, yeah," I answered.

"Let me get the kids back," he said. I agreed to this, mostly because I was afraid of the lightning striking one of the kids. It would be worse than one of Meiyomon's experiments.

It surprisingly didn't take him too long to get back. My guess is he ran into another councillor on his way back, and handed the kids off. He was back within the minute.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I was almost struck by lightning," I explained. "This isn't safe. No one can get near it. Not until Koushiro tells us what it is. And it's dangerous. He'd better be coming up with a way to get rid of it."

"We can't have the kids anywhere near it," he agreed. "How far is this 'lightning' reaching?"

"I kind of ducked for cover when I saw it, okay? I don't know exactly," I huffed.

"Well, we could…" he trailed off. He ran his fingers through his hair, clenching them into fists. "We can't stay here. We've got to get them to call off camp…for this week at least."

"Right," I said. "And how do you propose we do that exactly?"

"I don't know," he said exasperatedly. "I'm not a genius Daisuke. I don't have all the answers."

"Right, well," I said, but I was cut off by another bolt of lightning coming from the tear. This one hit the tree behind me, causing me and Takeru to run for it.

"Miyako! Ken!" Takeru shouted as we ran out of the trees into the cabin area. "We have trouble, with a capital T!"

"So do we," Ken said, coming up behind us.

"What? Is it worse than lightning?" I asked.

"Lightning?" Miyako asked, trailing behind him. "We were talking about the snow by the lake."

"Snow?" Takeru asked, he seemed to light up faster than a light bulb. "It's just like before."

"What are you talking about?" Ken asked, begging for the answers we all wanted from him.

"In 1999," he explained. "August first, up on that hill by the now abandoned cabin, a tear opened up, after the weather got confused. It was snowing, and then suddenly seven lights came from the air—they ended up being our digi-vices. Then we were taken into the Digital World…."

"That can't be what this is," Miyako said gently. "You heard Gennai."

"And I've heard him say it before," he said. "He was wrong then too. Something's happening."

"Don't," I said. "We don't have time to argue whether it is the Digital World or some alter-life-as-we-know-it situation that will result in the Earth blowing up. We have to evacuate the camp. And fast."

"It's already been started," Ken said. "That's what we came to tell you. The snow freaked the boss out he said he couldn't handle another strange summer."

"Which we now actually understand…" Miyako interrupted. She held her hands up in surrender when Ken sent her a glare.

"The kids have been packing their bags, and the other councillors have been contacting their parents. They have no idea what to do in this situation," he continued. "It's not in the manual."

"Of course it isn't," Takeru said. "Until a few years ago, they didn't think the Digital World existed. They still don't think it exists."

"It might not be—" Miyako started.

"No time," I repeated. "I'm calling Jun. She'll come and get me; she owes me for watching Otamamon for her every weekend since she got him. You guys help evacuate the kids. They are a priority. I'm going to see if Koushiro has got anywhere. I'll see if I can contact Iori as well. And Hikari will want to know. Call me when you get out of here, alright? I'll let you know what else is left at that point. I don't know where I'll be at that point in time."

"Yes sir," Takeru and Miyako said giving me mock salutes. But I could tell they knew the seriousness of the situation.

They ran off to help the kids, and I started out down the road that led out of the campsite, while dialing my sister.

"Hello, you've reached Jun, what do you want?" I would have snickered at her polite-yet-rude greeting, but I knew there wasn't time for it.

"I need a ride. I don't have time for questions. Can you get me?" I said in my no-nonsense tone.

"I guess," she said suddenly serious too. "What's up?"

"It's a world-anomaly thing," I said. "I can't explain. I need to get to our resident genius' house to figure it out."

"I'm on my way," she said hanging up. It was times like this that I actually appreciated having a sister.

Not that I held that thought for long.

She picked me up less than half an hour later, on the side of the road. I'd decided to run as far as I could just to save time in the end.

"Okay, now that you're going to be around, you can take The Fish with you," she said.

I rolled my eyes, but didn't bother to remind her that Otamamon had a name…and possibly wasn't a fish. I couldn't remember….

"Why can't you just keep Otamamon with you?"

"I've got a date with Shuu," she said.

"Who's Shuu?"

"Your friend's brother…what's his name? Something Kido, Jou maybe?" she continued. "The point is, it's only our third real date, and we're spending the day together, and I didn't want to spend it talking about the digital make-up of The Fish, and how it can live in the regular world and function the same even though it isn't made up of actual matter. There's only so much of that I can take you know. And I'm really into this guy."

"I don't care about that," I told her. "You were after Yamato for years, but it didn't amount to anything either."

"I've been interested in Shuu twice as long as that," she said. And I actually believed her. "I really want this to work, but I want to know _him_ not The Fish."

"Right well," I said. "If you can drop me off in down-town Odaiba, I'll take Otamamon with me."

"No dice," she said. "You take The Fish, and I drop you off at home. I have only an hour left, and I'm not finished with my hair or my nails. I was about to start them when you called."

"Again, I don't need to know this. I have to call Iori right now," I said pulling out my phone again. "Don't interrupt me okay? This could be for the good of the entire world."

"Saving the world again? Haven't you done that like twice already? Isn't that enough?" she asked, but I ignored her. The phone was ringing.

"Hello, you have reached Iori Hida, I apologize for not coming to the phone, but Meiyo is currently trying to explode the house, leave a short message and I will return your call."

"Iori, we've got an issue, a the-world-could-end type issue. Call when you get this," I said, biting back a groan. Of course he'd be out—or literally stopping Meiyomon from destroying something—when we need him.

"He's not answering?" Jun asked sympathetically.

"No," I said freely expressing my frustration with a few curses while I was at it.

"No need to get fresh," she said defensively. "I was just asking."

"Sorry," I said. "Can't you go any faster?"

"Not if you don't want to be pulled over for speeding. I'm going too fast as it is."

I called Iori three times more by the time we reached my house. I ran inside, tossed my backpack on my bed and ran to find Otamamon.

"Hello Daisuke!" he called. "What are you doing here? You're either at camp or at the Yagami residence usually..."

"I know," I said, glancing around to make sure mom wasn't home. I didn't have time for a mother-son bonding moment. Things wouldn't allow for that time. "We're going on a trip."

"You and me and Jun?" he asked.

"Naw, just you and me buddy," I said scooping him into my arms. "We've got a genius to alert and a sick girl to inform."

"Couldn't you have just said their names?" Otamamon wanted to know.

"Wouldn't have given the variety," I said as I ran out the door. "I'm working on my word choices."

"Good work then," he said taking me seriously, like I knew he would. I rolled my eyes, and pushed myself to go faster.

Hikari's house was closer, and I really preferred talking to Hikari over Koushiro in general. And I wouldn't have to waste time knocking at the Yagami's. Since Hikari's been sick, and Taichi's been at school, they've practically adopted me so that I could take care of Hikari in Taichi's place, lightening the stress on the entire family—Hikari especially, she hated her parents hovering over her.

"Aren't you going to knock?" Otamamon asked as I burst through the front door, and made my way to my—and Taichi's I guess—bedroom. Taichi was lying on the top bunk while Hikari was resting on the bottom—mine. Both looked up, startled, when I barged into the room.

"Daisuke, what's wrong?" Hikari asked, at the same time Taichi said "What the hell, Daisuke?"

"Trouble," I panted. Running the entire way wasn't my best idea. "There's a tear…in the space-time continuum…or reality…don't know. Lighting…almost hit me…got a tree…instead…snow on the lake…camp cancelled."

"What?" Taichi asked.

"It was snowing at camp?" Hikari asked. "Lighting coming out of a rip in reality?"

"Sounds like…" Taichi said trailing off.

"That's what Takeru thinks," I said. "Koushiro's running tests…but it got dangerous…lightning and all."

"We have to go," Hikari said getting to her feet, wobbling a little when she finally got there. "We have to help."

"Lay down Hikari," both Taichi and I said at once. He turned to glare at me.

"Don't tell my sister what to do," he growled.

"You said the same as me," I defended myself.

"I'm her brother; I'm supposed to take care of her."

"I can take care of myself," Hikari interrupted.

"Quiet Hikari," we said together again, causing both of us to growl this time.

"Don't tell her to shut up," I said.

"You did," he said throwing my argument back in my face.

"Guys," she tried again, but we ignored her. He was just going to have to see things my way.

"We don't have time for this," she continued.

"Taichi, what is your problem?"

"You are, Daisuke," he said, shoving me a little.

"Well," Hikari said. "You are _both_ my problem."

"You know what my problem is? The safety of the world, that's what," I said pushing Taichi back.

"I'm going," Hikari said. If I'd been really listening, I might have made an attempt at stopping her…but again, I wasn't really paying attention.

"You were supposed to be at camp," he said. "I was spending quality time with my sister."

"You can do that tomorrow," I shouted at him. "We need her right now."

"Just her?" he asked. "Why not me? If it really is the Digital World, I have more experience than _you_ do."

"Well, I happen to think her and Iori will help us most in this situation," I shot back.

"Because they'll actually listen to you?" he asked with a snort.

"You know what—?" I started.

"Just shut up!" Hikari's raspy voice called out. "We need a plan."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Sora's chapter is next, she meets up with Mimi, and a chaotic shopping trip ensues….


	5. Shop 'Til You Drop Dead

**Y/N: **Sora's up this time, I really enjoyed this chapter, the interactions Sora has helps bring us up to speed with the group's relationship as a whole, and I thought that was a really good and necessary thing. I hope you like it!

**U/N: ** Uhhhh I wrote this one... and i always find it hard to be Sora, because... i don't really know who she is. She's such an odd character, first she's all tomboy and into soccer, then she's a girly girl whos into flowers, and somehow she ends up in fashion... and i don't know how to write as her-but i just did it... i like this chapter, i kind of made Mimi a LITTLE bit stupid... not intentionally, don't worry about that i'll work on making her more intelligent next time ;)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

******Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 05: Shop 'til You Drop…Dead!**

_**Sora:**_

I had been planning on going shopping, and just because Mimi came to me practically hysterical, I wasn't going to change my plans. She had been ranting and raving about Koushiro and how he just didn't get it. I didn't ask her what it was that he didn't get, but I didn't really care that much. I mean, I loved them both, but at the same time both Koushiro and Mimi were always spewing things out that I didn't understand, so I quite often just pretended that they weren't talking to me.

"Where are we going?" Mimi asked wiping a tissue across her tear stained face, mopping up what was left of her tears.

"I'm going shopping." I told her as I grabbed my sun hat and backpack off the hook by the door.

"Sora, you look beautiful," Mimi told me, "But if you intend to get into the fashion business then you need to get a purse. This old backpack is taking away from the pretty combination of your sandals, dress and hat." Mimi was done crying now, or it seemed that way anyway. Helping people was something Mimi enjoyed doing, especially if helping that someone included a makeover.

"Okay," I told her, "We'll go shopping for purses. And tennis shoes."

"I thought you weren't playing tennis anymore..." Mimi said slowly.

"I couldn't let it go." I sighed as I opened the front door and led Mimi outside. "I tried, but I felt so... bored without something to do with my time. And I'm not really a girly girl anyway... you know? So if I just stick with fashion then I'll never be the person that I want to be. I may be a girl Mimi... but without sports I'm a little too much of a girl."

"I understand," Mimi said, "I wish I could play sports. They look like fun."

I nodded in response but said nothing more. It was fun to be with Mimi, and she was one of my best friends, but neither of us was in a good mood at that time, so we weren't being our regular selves.

"Don't you have to tell them that you're leaving?" Mimi asked.

"Nope," I said, "They don't really care... It's not my house you know... they probably just think I'm going home."

"But don't you at least want to say bye to Yamato first?" Mimi asked, "And why won't you go home?"

"Yamato is at band practice anyway," I explained, "And I won't go home because of my mother. She's really frustrating me and I need some time alone, without her."

"That makes sense I guess." Mimi said, "How's Taichi? I haven't seen him since I got back from New York. It's weird huh?"

"That's not weird at all Mimi," I told her, "Taichi doesn't speak to me either. He sometimes talks to Yamato, but mostly he's off in his own little world. I think it's because Hikari's sick."

"Still?" Mimi asked loudly, "That's awful!"

"You haven't gone to visit her yet?" I asked her, "Oh Mimi! We'll go see Hikari after we go shopping. I'm sure she'd like to see you."

"I'd like that!" Mimi smiled as we continued walking down the street, "But I haven't seen a lot of people yet. I saw Ken and Miyako, but only for a couple minutes at her convenience store, otherwise they're too busy with work at the camp to see me. I've been to Daisuke's house a couple times, but he's never home. Jou's catching up on sleep a lot, but I've been spending a little time with him... mostly I've just seen Koushiro and you. What happened to us? I thought we were friends! Michael, Willis, Tatum and I stayed as close friends—why haven't you guys?"

"We're just growing apart Mimi..." I told her.

"Not if I can help it." Mimi said flatly, "I'm going to make it my mission to keep us all as best friends!"

"Good luck with that," I laughed, "But... if you can do it... I will love you forever."

"You don't already?"

"Well I just mean that... I miss everyone. I miss Taichi most of all though... we used to be best friends and then we broke up... and... everything changed. I miss him."

"Well I can help with that!" Mimi cheered, "Captain Mimi to the rescue!" She punched the air excitedly as I rolled my eyes at her. "So what's Iori up to? And that other girl? Kurayami?"

"Iori has girlfriend I think... or just his friend—I can't remember which he said it was, and Kurayami—I honestly have no idea. Daisuke would know though, him and Hikari talk to her frequently."

"Well we can ask her when we go to her house after this," Mimi smiled, "I need to know all of the facts if I'm going to make us all be best friends again." She stopped smiling and thought, "So when did it all start? All of this hate?"

I looked over at Mimi who was wearing glasses with no lenses and was holding a pad of paper and a large feathery quill to write down notes with. "Where did you get-?"

"That's not important Sora," Mimi laughed, "When did everyone start hating each other?"

"When we left the digital world..." I said flatly. It was true, that summer was when we all stopped being friends. We all held it together long enough to visit Mimi in New York, but we were all so awkward together, the only thing we all really had in common was our digimon, and once we didn't have that anymore, we were no longer destined to be together... no longer digidestined, and so we didn't need to stay friends. That's always what I assumed it to be like anyway. I know that Taichi met that girl... Rei Saiba? And Some of us went off to college and Jou had Momoe—but from what I'd heard I was pretty sure they had broken up, which was sad because they were really cute together... but the point was... we had no digimon anymore and so we weren't friends.

"That's not true—you were all friends in New York!" Mimi insisted.

"Hardly..." I told her, "That was already a year after my first year in University. My first year away from Taichi—ever. Yamato and I stayed strong though... I was so afraid of losing him that I think I put too much effort there and not enough in staying in touch with Taichi and everyone else."

"But Taichi seemed fine with you!" Mimi insisted.

"He still wasn't really over me though..." I told her, "It was awkward for him, and it was awkward for me, and I'm pretty sure for Yamato too. It wasn't a fun trip Mimi—other than seeing you of course. I love you!" I knew she had been offended by me saying it wasn't a very fun trip. But it was true, I had loved seeing Mimi, but I wasn't a fan of the city itself and I hated the situation between me and Taichi, and I was just so stressed the whole trip.

"I see... well I'll be speaking to Taichi about this to see if your story holds truth—"

"You don't believe me?"

"Well you see, it's not that I don't believe you, I just want to be sure that I'm doing the right things in my attempt to get the two of you to be friends again." Mimi explained.

"You're such a strange person Mimi..." I told her laughing, "Anything else you want to know?"

"Yes actually..." Mimi said slowly, "You're twenty one years old Sora... that's pretty old—"

"It's not old Mimi, I'm perfectly young and agile still—" I tried.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night—"

"Mimi you're only a year younger than me."

"And that's one long, youth filled year Sora." Mimi laughed, but I just rolled my eyes.

"So what's your point?" I asked her, "You know how old I am..."

"I was just wondering when you and Yamato were planning on getting married." Mimi said as if it were nothing at all. But it was. It was something. I didn't respond to her right away, and the two of us just kept walking. I didn't know how to answer that... I hadn't thought about marriage, I hadn't thought about anything in the future for Yamato and I... I had just been living in the present. What did the future hold? Marriage? Children? Travelling? Buying a house? Were we going to break up? I certainly hoped that we would still be together, but I hadn't planned anything further. I wondered suddenly what Yamato would think if Mimi asked him. Would he want to? Would he hate the idea?

"I don't know Mimi." I told her finally, "I hadn't really thought about it."

"You haven't thought about it?" Mimi asked loudly, "What about children? Have you thought about them?"

"No..." I told her slowly, "I haven't actually, but now that I think of it, I think I'll wait for a while to have kids. I think I want to be out of University first... and that's in at least two years..."

"Only two more years to have kids?" Mimi asked excitedly, "I love kids—you know who else loves kids? It's a funny story, I'm not supposed to tell you but—"

"Mimi..." I said slowly, trying to escape from one of her rants, "What are Michael and Willis doing?"

"Probably eating?" Mimi said, "How am I supposed to know?"

"I meant what are they doing with their future?" I asked, "Are they coming to visit? Will we see them again? I just thought that since you said you're still friends with them... that maybe you could fill me in... that way at least I'll know something about a few of my friends..."

"Who else talks to you?" Mimi asked.

"Mostly Yamato, Takeru and Miyako. Hikari does when I visit her of course." I told her.

"Well what are they doing?" Mimi asked.

"Hikari is sick... but doing school at home with the help of Daisuke who gets his answers from Ken." I explained, "Takeru has no idea what he's doing after High School, Yamato is still trying to be a rockstar but now he's also got University and Miyako is living a wonderfully happy life... just where she is."

"Well that's cute... I'm happy for her. I wonder when her and Ken are going to get married..." Mimi said slowly, trailing off.

"Is that all you think about?" I asked her. "Marriage?"

"Well yeah... today it is anyway." Mimi said, snapping back to attention, "Anyway, Michael wants to be an actor and Willis just doesn't care. He's a genius though so he'll just figure it out last minute and be awesome at whatever it is."

And then we continued talking about our friends. It was kind of fun to relive what had happened with Mimi, even if it was a painful time to live through in the first place. But having her give her advice and hilarious side comments made what had happened seem a lot less terrible. But I still missed Taichi.

"What store do you want to go to?" Mimi asked.

"I'm going to the market place." I told her, "It's just across town but they sell some really cool things, and it's really cheap... but the money all goes to some charity."

"Which charity?" Mimi asked.

"No idea, but they've gotten about eight hundred dollars from me in the past two weeks..." I admitted.

Mimi laughed as I led her around the corner and toward the Market.

"It's really bright today." Mimi complained, "Can I borrow your hat?"

"No—get your own." I told her.

She looked to the sky and sighed, "But it's so bri—what's that?" She was pointing up into the sky and so I followed her point and looked into the rays of the sun. There seemed to be something falling from the sky quickly. Suddenly Mimi pushed me out of the way and we fell back into the side of a building just as whatever it was landed where we had just been standing.

Mimi, proud of herself for saving my life, jumped to her feet and smiled as she pulled me up as well. I adjusted my hat and smiled at her, "Thanks Mimi... What was it?"

She hurried over to where it was and looked down at it. She reached down and pulled it up quickly. I couldn't see it at first so I moved closer and looked over her shoulder. It was a large, palm sized piece of silver... but there was no mistaking it. It was, "A key?" Mimi asked. "Now whoever dropped this from way up there is going to be really upset that they can't find they're keys. They probably got this giant key just so they wouldn't lose it."

"Mimi..." I told her, "This glowing key fell from the sky. I don't think it's anyone's car keys. I think we should tell Koushiro about it."

"Can you do it?" She asked, "I'd really rather not talk to him right now."

"Oh fine..." I sighed, reaching around and pulling my phone out of my backpack.

"What do you keep in here anyway?" Mimi asked me, pulling my backpack away from me as I dialled Koushiro's phone number. The phone rang a while until finally his machine picked up, "I'm sorry, I'm doing something incredibly important and what you have to say is likely not as important as the discovery I'm in the process of making. But leave a message and I may get back to you." There was a beep and I sighed.

"Firstly, Koushiro, you're answering machine is mean and degrading—"

"I know right!" Mimi agreed as she went through the contents of my backpack, "He's such a meany!"

"And I wanted to tell you about this key that fell from the sky—" I continued as if Mimi hadn't spoken at all.

There was a click as Koushiro picked up his phone, "How do you know about that?"

"You were there the whole time?" I asked him, "You were just going to ignore me? Mimi was right, we really should be friends again."

"How do you know about the key?" Koushiro repeated.

"How could I not know?" I asked him, "It almost killed me."

"There's another?" He asked, "Of course! There were five balls of light! How could I have forgotten something as crucial as that? Thank you Sora! Now bring your key to my house immediately! It's really important."

"Why do you carry all of your sewing things around with you?" Mimi asked, pulling my sewing kit and a tennis ball. "Really? A tennis ball? You didn't even take a racket! What good is this?"

I ignored her, "I think it can wait Koushiro. It's not like the world is ending or anything, and I really need to get these tennis shoes before my tournament on Monday, so I'll come by your house tomorrow—"

"Sora!" Koushiro insisted, "You don't understand! I think it's really important!"

"And you can have it!" I repeated, "Just not today. Mimi and I are going to go see Hikari after we go shopping."

"But—" Koushiro started.

"Just be patient Koushiro—I've got to go, Mimi's emptying the contents of my backpack... Bye!" I hung up the phone before he could try to persuade me any further. We had all the time in the world, I was sure he could wait a little longer for the key.

"Mimi—what are you doing?" I asked her as I reached for my books that Mimi had tossed aside. I shoved them back into my backpack as Mimi smiled and placed my sewing kit back inside as well.

"I'm making a necklace!" She smiled. "Look!" She held up a red string that she had gotten from my sewing kit, hanging off of it like a charm was the key that had just tried to kill us. "You should wear it! I think it will go nice with your dress!"

"Mimi I really don't want—" it was too late, she had already tossed it around my neck. "Thank you..."

"Let's go!" She grabbed my backpack and led the way down the street. I had to take lead eventually as she had no idea where the market place was. Once there we shopped around, not really buying anything, looking for shoes and purses and then finally Mimi spotted a stand that sold purses. I was impressed that she had found it through all of the people. We could hardly move because of the large amount of people in the Market.

Mimi grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the stand. She squealed in excitement as she looked around. The clerk came up to me and smiled. It was a rather mischievous smirk. The clerk wore a black masquerade mask that covered the top half of her face and a black hat with a fishnet veil that fell around her face. Her hair was long and silvery and it hung down her back. She was wearing a tight black dress... and she looked very... very familiar to me.

"How can I help you today?" She asked, her voice was also familiar as it pierced its way to my ears. It was cold and angry, even though she said it with joy.

"I was just looking for a purse—my friend thinks my backpack is too unfashionable." I told her, staring intently at her eyes... there was something about them that seemed a little off.

"Well, you seem to like the colour red—and silver." The lady said, taking off down the row of purses hanging on hooks. "I think this one matches your hat—" She handed me a very small red purse.

"I'm looking for something a little bigger..." I told her. She walked off again and I followed. I was so focused on finding out who she was that I barely noticed Mimi knock over a whole rack of purses and bury herself in them.

"I'm okay!" she laughed as she pulled herself to her feet and began restocking the purses.

"This one!" The lady said finally turning around with a large silver purse. "It matches your necklace!" The lady was smiling, but slowly the smile fell as she stared at the key around my neck, "That... that is mine." She said slowly.

"What?" I asked, looking down to the key, "That's not possible..." I wanted to tell her that it fell from the sky so there was no way it could have been hers, but if it was important like Koushiro said I knew that I probably shouldn't have been telling everyone about it.

"It is! It's mine!" The lady insisted, dropping the purse. "Please... give it back to me." She seemed really nervous as her fingers began to twitch and she stared at the key.

"No—" I started.

"GIVE IT BACK!" She screamed. Mimi was instantly by my side.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"That's mine!" The lady insisted. "That's my key! It's mine!"

"Okay, calm down..." Mimi said slowly.

I took one step backwards and then grabbed Mimi's arm and pulled, the two of us started running away from the woman, but we didn't get very far. She was suddenly standing in front of us again.

"Not so quick!" The woman said, her hat falling off revealing a slick pitch black scalp. It looked like it was made of rubber, as though something was pulled over her head. "Just give me the key and I won't harm you."

"Harm us?" I asked her, "We're surrounded by people!"

"That doesn't bother me." The woman said monotonously. "Give me the key!"

"Run!" Mimi yelled and the two of us set off at a run, running around the woman, one on either side of her. We both managed to make it out of the purse stand, but from different places and I couldn't see Mimi. I looked over my shoulder to see if the woman was following, but she wasn't, instead she was hunched over and screaming loudly. Suddenly wings shot from her back and the masquerade mask fell off as her tight black dress ripped to shreds. She stood tall and turned toward me with her red eyes and I gasped.

"Ladydevimon."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Hikari is next in the line-up, what will Taichi and Daisuke do, will they stop arguing…while Ladydevimon is on the loose? Find out next time!


	6. Brotherly Love?

**Y/N: **Hikari is up this time, I enjoyed it thoroughly, I hope you do as well.

**U/N: **(I was not given a U/N for this chapter...sorry...)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

******Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 06: Brotherly Love**

_**Hikari:**_

"Are you even listening to me?" I asked, rather aggravated as Taichi and Daisuke growled at each other, and of course, judging by their lack of acknowledgement I assumed that the answer was no. No they were not listening. I fell back to a sitting position on Daisuke's bunk and sighed. I was glad that Daisuke had thought to come to us, to inform us of the abnormalities that had been happening, but he could not have come at a worse time. I had literally just been telling Taichi that Daisuke was a good brother to me. He was helping me, but that he would never replace Taichi himself… only I didn't get to the second part, so I could only assume that Taichi thought I was picking Daisuke over him. Which was ironic as the last time I checked Taichi was hoping for Daisuke and I to get married…

I looked up and spotted a purple blob moving toward me. He was smiling. It was Otamamon, I hadn't seen him in a while—Daisuke brought him over once occasionally, but he usually returned home to babysit. "Hello Hikari!" Otamamon smiled as he hopped up into my lap. "How are you feeling today?"

"Charming, really." I said sarcastically.

"That's wonderful!" He said, taking my sarcasm seriously. I rolled my eyes and looked back up to Daisuke and Taichi. Taichi was trying to look bigger than he was to threaten Daisuke who was staring at Taichi as if he were insane.

"Guys!" I called out, "You need to stop arguing!" They didn't listen. I honestly didn't expect them to.

"She's my sister—and I don't need your help to raise her!" Taichi argued.

"I don't need anyone raising…" I pointed out, "In case you haven't noticed—"

"You're never here!" Daisuke roared, finally defending himself against his idol. "If you're not here then who is supposed to help her?"

"I have school—I can't be here!"

"That's exactly my point!" Daisuke snapped, "I don't have anything better to do so I help her out!"

"Is that an insult toward me?" I asked Otamamon.

He shook his head, "I think he meant it kindly, but he sometimes mistakes kind things for mean things, like when he called me a slimy ball of annoying—he said he meant it as a compliment."

"Uh—" I stopped myself, I'd let him believe Daisuke if he wanted to.

It was really annoying to have Taichi arguing with Daisuke about this… first he was too distant and then he wanted to be by my side at every minute of every day—I can't have that. It was a little insane really—it was like Takeru… every time I saw him he wouldn't leave my side—even if I had to go to the washroom. He would just wait outside the bathroom for me. Daisuke at least spent some time off on his own, doing his own thing, usually listening to deafening music, but still, at least it gave me some alone time. Taichi hadn't even let me have a shower this morning because he said I might have fallen and hurt myself. So I had a bath instead. It was too much to handle. To be honest though, I preferred Willis to take care of me. He was so much fun to be around—and he'd been getting much better at cooking and doing chores ever since Terriermon and Lopmon had been taken away from him. He said it was probably good for him to learn to do things, but he would rather them be with him and I totally understood how he felt. Willis offered to have me go to New York with him for a bit, and I really wanted to, only mom wouldn't let me. She said that she and Daisuke agreed that it would be best for me to stay here in Japan until I started to feel better. Yep, that's right, Daisuke had more say in my life than my own father…

I hadn't seen dad in a while. He'd gone on a business trip last week and hadn't been back yet… I missed him. But it wasn't uncommon for me to miss someone. I missed everyone—always… except for Daisuke, but that was only because he lived with me. Sora and Takeru occasionally dragged Yamato down to see me, and Miyako, Ken and Iori came at least once a week, and even Kurayami would send me an email every now and then, but Jou, Michael and Koushiro hadn't visited me once—not once! I couldn't blame Michael really because he lived in America, and I had never spoken with him for more than a moment at a time, but Jou and especially Koushiro who did practically nothing with his spare time could come to see me. And Mimi! I heard she was back in Japan—but I hadn't seen her smiling face come through that door yet! But even though I never saw half of my friends, I usually missed Willis the most.

Suddenly I stood up, forgetting Otamamon was on my lap. He fell off and rolled under my bed.

"Where ya going?" He asked as he poked his head out from the shadows.

"I'm going to go check my email." I told him as I walked by the arguing boys.

"Can I come?" he asked me.

"Sure why not?" I told him as I led the way, shakily, toward my bedroom. I pushed the door open and moved across the room, falling into the soft chair that sat in front of the computer. I moved quickly and opened my email.

"What's it say?" Otamamon asked quickly as the computer loaded.

"I don't know yet." I told him.

"Oh," he said, "What's this?" he opened my closet door.

"That would be my closet." I told him as a number three popped up on my screen. I clicked the messages and opened the first one, it was from Willis.

_Hey Hikari! I was just thinking that I hadn't been over to your house for a whole month! I thought I'd come say hi… you down with that? Love, Willis._

I almost replied, but then I saw that the next one was from Willis too, so I clicked it and giggled.

_I thought you would enjoy this… _

It was a picture of a baby in a mostly eaten watermelon.

"That's so funny!" Otamamon laughed, "One time I ate a watermelon! Is that funny too?"

I nodded and smiled warmly at him, "That's really funny! I think we have a watermelon in the refrigerator if you want to eat another one?"

"Hurray!" He smiled running off out of my room and down the hallway. I was sure he'd find his way. I looked at the final email, also from Willis and raised my eyebrows, maybe I was wrong? Maybe he was just as clingy as Takeru and the others, but I changed my mind quickly as I read the email.

_Scratch that last one—well the one before the watermelon one—so funny! –I'm coming on the next flight. Koushiro just emailed me and told me about the rip thing at the camp… I'll be there as soon as I can! Wait for me!_

I looked at the time the email was sent—fourteen hours ago. I smiled, Willis would be here soon. I turned around and laughed as Otamamon rolled in on a watermelon.

"It's so big!" he smiled to himself as he took a large bite out of it.

"Close your eyes." I told him as I pulled some clothes out of my closet and threw them on. As I was doing so I realized, yet again, that I still had too many pink articles of clothing. I grabbed my camera and whistle and threw them around my neck and put a pink hat on my head to keep the sun off and then threw on a jacket just in case. "You can open your eyes now," I told him as I walked from the room.

"Wait for me!" he called as he dragged his watermelon after me. I stopped in the hallway at the sight of Miko dragging something across the hallway. The poor cat was losing fur all over… he was so old and brittle, just the sight of him made me sad… I didn't want to lose him like I lost Gatomon… I moved toward him to hug him but he hissed and backed away, protecting whatever it was he was dragging. He was covering it with his body though so I couldn't see, but that soon changed as he caught sight of Otamamon and pounced at him, protecting his territory. I picked Miko off of the shocked Otamamon and set him back down. I watched him run off as fast as his old bones would let him and looked back to what he was dragging. I picked it up and flipped it over in my hands.

"What do you think it's for?" Otamamon asked.

I shook my head, "I dunno." It was a white key that about the size of my palm. I put it in my pocket and re-entered Daisuke's—or rather Taichi's bedroom. They were still arguing.

"It's your fault!" Taichi snapped, "if you hadn't have come back we wouldn't have been arguing!"

"Well you were the one who started the argument—" Daisuke started.

"Well now she's gone! She could be anywhere!" Taichi cried out.

"I'm here actually." I told them.

"_Anywhere_," Taichi emphasized.

"Well that's not my fault. She has her own mind and she can do what she wants with it." Daisuke defended me.

"But she could be lost or—" I suddenly blew as hard as I could into my whistle and they both spun around to face me. Taichi lunged forward and wrapped his arms around me. "Thank goodness!"

"I was just changing." I told them.

"And checking her email!" Otamamon helped, "There was this picture! And the baby—"

"You should let us know where you're going next time…" Daisuke said.

I took a deep breath to keep from exploding in their faces and then let it out slowly. "I don't need you both hovering over me! The reason I like you here in the first place Daisuke, besides your adorable attempts at humour, and your general good company, is that you don't hover like my parents. I don't need to tell you guys every time I do something—and I certainly don't need your advice on which way I should cleanse myself in the morning Taichi!" They seemed taken aback for that moment, so I decided to use it to my advantage. I stuck my hand in my pocket to pull out the key, "Now I want to show you something—"

"You hear that?" Daisuke asked, "She doesn't want you to help her shower!"

"Well she doesn't want you hovering!" Taichi shot.

"Okay guys," I said, giving up on them as I picked up Otamamon and his watermelon. "I'm leaving. Have fun arguing."

They didn't listen to me, and again, I really hadn't expected them to. I walked quickly toward the kitchen table and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and set Otamamon down so I could start writing.

_Dear Mom, Dad, and/or Willis, I have gone to Koushiro's house. I will be back. I would tell my brother(s) where I was going if only they weren't trying to rip each other's heads off. Okay I love you all! Be back soon!_ I set the pencil down but then quickly picked it back up and wrote _I think!_

"C'mon Otamamon," I said to him, walking over to the front door. He was, once again, dragging his watermelon. As I reached toward the door knob the door flew open and smacked me in the face causing me to fall over and gasp in pain.

"Oh I'm so sorry Hikari!" Sora said hurriedly in the doorway.

"Does no one knock in this house?" Otamamon asked with a mouth full of melon.

Sora quickly helped me to my feet and hugged me, "It's good to see you!" She said, "And I really am sorry about that—where's your brother?"

I pointed to the bedroom and she was off, running toward the room. I followed at a brisk pace, "But good luck getting through to them! They don't listen to anyone or anything except themselves!"

Sora pushed the door open and instantly the arguing stopped.

"Sora…?" Taichi asked, exasperated. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Seriously?" I asked out loud, "You listen to her? No, scratch that. She didn't even have to _speak_!"

"We do listen to you Hikari!" Daisuke and Taichi said together sending each other glares of utmost disgust.

"Oh really?" I asked them, rolling my eyes.

"And we just told you to—" Daisuke started.

"To tell us where you're going before—" Taichi continued.

"Before you leave our sights!" Daisuke finished.

"I did." I said flatly.

"Oh…" They said together.

"Guys I have something really important to tell you all—" Sora said.

"Me too actually…" I told them, smiling that they were finally listening to what I had to say.

"Mine's really important—I think I should go first." Sora said, asking for my permission. I knew I liked Sora… she treated me with respect, and as though I were an adult, and not a five year old.

"Go ahead," I smiled at her.

"Okay—so I saw—!" She stopped herself, "Wait… I'll start at the beginning… Mimi and I were going shopping because I really needed tennis shoes and Mimi thought that I needed a purse because my backpack is _gaudy_ apparently—I really don't think—"

"Sora?" I asked, trying to keep her on track as Otamamon made disgusting noises at my feet as he devoured the watermelon.

"Right—sorry," She said quickly, "Well on our way I found this key!" She held up a bronze key that was around her neck.

"Hey!" I smiled, "Me too!" I pulled the white key I had found earlier out of my pocket and showed them.

Sora's face lit up, "That's great! Koushiro said there were five… and he's got one—so there should only be two more!" She turned back to Taichi, "Anyway, we need to bring them to Koushiro."

"That's it?" Taichi asked, "That's the important news?"

"I feel like there's more…" Daisuke said, a little worried, "I mean, that key must be the ones that shot out of the rip at camp."

"What?" Sora gasped, "What are you talking about?"

"The digital world is open." Taichi answered.

"That's not possible." Sora insisted.

"Yeah," Daisuke said, "It's also not true. It's just a minor rip—Koushiro will have it all sorted out later. Taichi, you and Takeru need to stop assuming."

"You know what?" Taichi asked threateningly as he advanced upon Daisuke.

"Guys!" I tried, to no avail, to get them to hear my pleas and stop their arguing once and for all.

"I don't want you in my house anymore." Taichi growled.

"Fine!" Daisuke snapped, "I guess I'll see you after Summer's over Hikari." Daisuke made to push past Sora but Taichi stopped him by placing his hand on his shoulder. For a moment, a brief, wonderful moment, I thought he would apologize.

Daisuke turned to face Taichi, one eyebrow raised. "I want my goggles back." Taichi ordered.

"You gave them to me…" Daisuke said taken aback.

"I know." Taichi growled, "And I want them back now."

Daisuke looked for a moment rather hesitant, but then he just sighed and pulled them off of his head. "You know what? Fine! Take them! I don't want them anyway!" he threw them at Taichi who caught them looking rather pleased with himself. Daisuke turned to leave.

"Wait!" Sora insisted. "Firstly," She ripped the goggles from Taichi's hands and put them on her head. "These are mine until you two stop arguing…"

"But—" Taichi started.

"That's—" Daisuke tried.

"That's fair." Sora insisted, "And more importantly… Daisuke, you were right. There is more to my story."

"This is delicious…" Otamamon said at my feet. I giggled at him as Sora paused for dramatic effect.

"While I was shopping I ran into—"

The window of our bedroom crashed loudly causing both Daisuke and Taichi to try to protect me from the shards of glass, but Sora got there first, putting her back to the flying glass.

"Who's that?" Otamamon asked loudly as we all looked toward the glass.

"Long time no see…" The evil devil digimon said, twirling her fingers through her hair, "And for your information small fish—"

"I'm a tadpole…" Otamamon pointed out.

"My name is Ladydevimon." She finished as though Otamamon hadn't cut across her words at all.

My heart was pounding quickly—firstly how had she known where I lived? Secondly, this wasn't possible… if what Daisuke said was true and the digital world hadn't been opened again, then why was Ladydevimon here? I slowly looked down to Otamamon, one of the only two other exceptions to the rule that Gennai had set for us. I looked quickly back up to Ladydevimon and gasped. She had moved closer to us and was standing right in front of us. She reached out and gently grabbed the key around Sora's neck and smiled, "This will do nicely." She pulled hard and the thin red thread that had been wrapped around Sora's neck broke. Sora was holding her breathe, too scared to move. And I suddenly knew the feeling as Ladydevimon turned on me.

"And it's my understanding that you've found one as well?" Ladydevimon asked. "I want it." She held her hand out as if I were to just hand it over.

I shook my head slowly, "No." I told her.

"What?" She gasped, "No? I think so—"

"No." I confirmed, "You can't have it. I want that one back." I pointed to Sora's key that was in her dark hand. My point was shaking, partly from fear, and partly from my instability from being sick.

Ladydevimon let out a hollow laugh and then suddenly reached forward and grabbed my arm pulling me sharply toward her.

"Hikari!" Taichi, Daisuke and Sora gasped, lunging forward to help me, but Ladydevmion sent them all flying back toward the wall.

"Give me the key darling…" Ladydevimon said slowly, running one of her boney fingers through my hair. She moved her head right close to mine and whispered in my ear, "Now."

"N-no…" I stuttered.

Ladydevimon let out a small "pah!" and then sighed, "Have it your way then. I guess I'll just take you along with the blasted key." She turned toward the window and made to fly away but stopped suddenly. I looked back and saw that Daisuke and Taichi both had a hold of one of her legs and as she swiped her free hand to get rid of them Sora grabbed my hand and pulled, freeing me from her grasp. I quickly turned around and pulled the bronze key from her hold as well, placing it in my pocket with the other one.

"Run!" Daisuke and Taichi ordered together as Sora led me from the room.

"Wait!" I hissed, pulling out of Sora's hold and pushing through Taichi and Daisuke, "Otamamon come on!" He ran from the room and then stopped suddenly.

"My watermelon—!"

"There's no time!" I insisted as I picked him up. The last thing I saw before turning and running back into Sora's arms as we ran for safety was Ladydevimon stepping on, and crushing the watermelon.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Miyako is next take control, when the rest of the counsellors finally escape the camp, and try to get some answers.


	7. Evacuation and Improvisation

**Y/N: **Woo-hoo! I'm back as writer this time around, and this time I'm being Miyako. I didn't have as much trouble writing her as an older Miyako as I thought I might, and in fact found that she was more family oriented this time around. I hope you enjoy the plot, but also the woman Miyako is blossoming into. Also, I hope that you enjoy the characterization that I've put towards her family members (mostly Mantarou, Chizuru and Momoe). Please review if you can. Thanks!

**U/N:** I'm sorry that i didn't have an author's note for Kari's chapter-it was because i was spending my time trying to contact my sister and inform her that "every other day" means "every other day" and not just whenever she feels like putting a chapter up. I dunno if she explained so I will do it. We were going to marathon this story for a while, one chapter a day, but my sister says "i've been sick for so long and i just can't possibly write!" and that's dumb. But now we are at a stand still because she is roughly two weeks late with the chapter that comes after this one. Will it be up on time? i dunno, i don't know if it will be written. But let's hope so.

Anyway, the last chapter, i kind of liked it, and i KNOW i went a little over the top on Taichi and Daisuke's argument, but that was the point, they are MAD. like... mad... anyway, this Taisuke plot thing is probably one of my favourite's that's going on in the story right now-and that's planned at all. Yes, that's right... we don't have everything planned out... most of it though... but anyway, i liked Otamamon, i was trying to show that he's kind of... become less rude as time went on? Jun is a good friend to him... that's what i would say anyway. Also, this was the second introduction of Willis... i like him... And to be completley honest we're not ENTIRELY sure how he and Michael are going to work their way into this story yet...  
As for this chapter, I don't really have much to say... just that i REALLY like Miyako, and i like this chapter... it makes me think of Adventure 01... dunno why really... but it's kind of leaving the last chapter off at a cliffhanger... ;) Anyway... review and stuf...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

******Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 07: Evacuation and Improvisation**

_**Miyako:**_

All hell was breaking loose. Children were being ushered around, some were even crying, having been so excited to go to camp, but I didn't have time to feel sorry for them. I was more worried about their safety, rather than their enjoyment.

"C'mon kid," I said, losing patience. "We don't have time for this."

"B-but, I d-don't w-want to l-leave," she cried. She was rubbing the tears from her eyes, and her pigtails were drooping. "I w-waited all y-year for this…"

She started wailing, and that's when I snapped.

"Then tell your parents to send you next week. I don't care," I told her. "Get your stuff packed, and march yourself onto that bus. Either that or I'm going to leave you here all on your own."

That scared her into action.

"I'm too little to be by myself," she insisted, before running into her cabin, hopefully to gather her belongings.

"Miyako," Ken said coming up behind me. "Boy cabins 1-5 are cleared, how about you?"

"Well," I said gritting my teeth. "If that whiny kid would have moved faster, I might have finished five cabins. I've only got three done. Girl cabins 3-6 are done."

"I've finished boy cabins 9-13," Takeru said coming up to us as well. "Daisuke was supposed to do cabins 5-8, but he's not here. The boss hasn't noticed it, so I'm heading to finish his job. You finish your last two, and then we can get out of here."

I grudgingly complied with his order, and finished evacuating the cabins. I had not had so much trouble with any kids before that day. I was suddenly rethinking my plans for future children…

"Finished?" Ken asked, as I dragged myself over to the parking lot.

"Finally," I said. "How are we getting home?"

"Mom and dad are in Tokyo, they were spending the week there, it's a mini-vacation of sorts," he explained. "And you said your parents were running the store today."

"Momoe's somewhere in Canada or something," I said. "I have no idea. Mantarou's house is too far away to be practical to call him…"

"And my mom is refusing to answer her phone," Takeru said looking very upset about this. I guess I understood that. He could have been dying, and she was ignoring him…

But then I realized that as a journalist, she was probably ignoring her phone while doing an interview. She probably didn't _really_ mean it as it sounded.

"What about your sister," Takeru suggested.

"That other one," Ken added.

"Chizuru?" I asked. "I don't know if I want to call her, but if we have no choice…"

Chizuru was the one sibling I had that I found it difficult to get along with. We were just so different. And she wasn't very sympathetic about the whole never-going-to-be-in-contact-with-the-Digital-World-ever-again thing. She just looked at me said "So?" all snobbishly and rolled her eyes at me. Matarou at least gave me a hug whenever I broke down—I let my emotions get away from me too easily. Plus, Chizuru was almost the opposite of me. She was always out having fun and partying and going on dates with dozens of guys, and had no real plans for her future, yet still managed to get into a top rate school and got a degree in business, and a fantastic job that pays really well…

I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with my life. I knew a few things that I definitely wanted, and then there were so many questions I still needed answered. What job did I want? I knew I didn't want to work at the convenience store all my life, though taking over it for mom and dad when they retired _did_ hold a certain appeal. I was working there whenever I wasn't working at camp. And with Ken going off to school next year, I didn't know what to do. I still had no idea what interested me. I could do so many different things, but not one of them had that instant connection that Daisuke had with his noodle cart dream, or Hikari becoming a kindergarten teacher. Even Mimi—the most fantastic person in the world, who still managed to be slightly flighty when it came to hobbies—knew that she wanted to go into cooking. She'd probably end up on television with a show of her own…

And I'd be watching it during my lunch break at the shop.

The only thing I knew I wanted for sure was marriage. I wanted to get married. It might not be Ken, but someday, I wanted that. Children—even with the super brat—would be a perfect addition to that dream. But I didn't think I'd be content with being a housewife all my life either.

"Are you going to call her?" Ken asked. I guess I'd just been standing there, staring off into space as my mind got away from me.

"I guess," I moaned, making my way to the head cabin, where the office and the phone were. I had to wait in line, since there were still some counsellors calling the kids' parents. After five minutes, it was my turn.

"Hello?" Chizuru asked in her superior way. She just _had_ to know I was on the line. She recognized the camp number or something.

"Hi Chizuru," I said. "It's me, Miyako."

"Ah, what do you want, Squirt?"

That was another thing. Squirt. They—Momoe, Mantarou and Chizuru—used to call me that when I was little. Momoe and Mantarou seemed to realize I'd grown out of the name, being nineteen and all. But Chizuru didn't get that memo…or she just knew how much it bugged me. Either way it grated on my nerves.

"I need you to come and pick me up," I said. I hoped she wouldn't refuse just to bug me. "Camp is being evacuated."

"What about Momoe," she asked. It was obvious she didn't want to do it.

"I don't know where she is," I explained. "She might still be in Canada. I haven't seen her in at least five months. Can you just do this for me?"

"Will you give me money for gas?"

"Fine," I said. "Just come and get us."

"_Us_?" she questioned.

"Ken, Takeru and I," I said getting more and more frustrated with her. Did she not realize that things were going to get hairy here if she didn't just do as I asked?

Of course she didn't. She didn't believe in the Digital World, she didn't believe in anything that hasn't been seen with her own two eyes.

"Whatever," she said. "I can be there in forty minutes. Thirty-five if I can find my car in the parking lot quick enough."

"Do that then," I said. And then I had to tack on a "Thank you" just because she was actually going out of her way to help us.

"Whatever," she said again. And then she hung up.

I went to tell the boys the good news with a big smile on my face.

"Okay," I said, now that we were at my house. Chizuru didn't exactly wait long. She demanded her gas money and then she drove off, probably to get ready for some date or something. "Now we call Daisuke."

"Right," Ken said, grabbing the phone off the wall, and dialing the numbers quickly. If we weren't so pressed for time, I might've asked how he could remember Daisuke's number so easily, since it was rather new, but we were, so I didn't.

"He's not answering," Ken said after awhile. "It's rung eight times. Now I've got his voice-mail. Maybe I should try again…"

We agreed, and Ken called him a few more times.

Getting voice-mail each time.

"Where is he?" Ken asked, getting worked up about it.

"I mean seriously," I complained. "We were supposed to call him when we got back, why won't he pick up?"

"You don't think he's in trouble, do you?" Ken asked.

"I doubt it," Takeru said. "He probably put it on silent and forgot we were supposed to call him."

"That's hoping for a lot there," I commented.

"I don't want to assume the worst, when I don't have to," Takeru said.

"That's my job," I said taking deep breaths, trying to keep the panic at bay. I could just see it, him and Jun at the side of the road somewhere, their car wrapped around a tree, their slightly mangled bodies motionless… Or Daisuke had been kidnapped as he was running down the road, waiting for his sister to pick him up, and Jun was still driving around looking for him… Or maybe someone was after them, guns blazing, trying to hunt down the digidestined… What if we were next? Oh god. I was trying to prevent that…

"Miyako, where did he say he had to go?" Ken asked, grabbing my hand to alleviate my terror.

"Hikari…he was going to go to Hikari," I said. "And he was going to call Iori."

"And go to Koushiro," Takeru said. "That's where we should go."

"Why?" Ken and I asked together. Takeru forfeiting a visit to Hikari? That was almost unheard of.

"If his phone is really on silence," Takeru explained. "He probably went to Koushiro's, no doubt bringing Hikari and Iori with him. He would go to Hikari first. He practically lives there."

"He _does_ live there," Ken commented, causing Takeru to frown.

"Right," I said, interrupting before Takeru could ask too many questions. "We'll head over to the Izumi residence."

"Alright," the boys agreed. I wrote a note, in case my parents head about the camp being evacuated, and worried about where I was. I could totally see them panicking over it. It was where I got it after all.

"Do you suppose he's figured anything out?" I asked, as we walked down the street. It was strangely empty, it didn't sit well with me. Takeru's hopes that everything was alright seemed harder and harder to grasp for me.

"He's Koushiro," Takeru commented. "Of course he has. He's got nothing better to do."

I was sure he had to have _something_ better to do, having just finished his second year of university. He had to have friends to hang out with or a girlfriend—not that it seemed likely. Making and analyzing scans of the tear at the camp couldn't be the only thing there was.

But at the same time, I was kind of hoping it was the only thing he had to do.

"I hope so," Ken said mirroring my thoughts.

We finally made it to his family's apartment, and knocked on the door, totally missing the door-bell beside us. We were in a hurry, okay?

"Hello," came the voice of Yoshi Izumi, Koushiro's mother. "Oh, hello Miyako, Ken and Takeru. I haven't seen any of you in a long while."

"Good afternoon Mrs. Izumi," I said, the others bowing their heads in greeting. "Would Koushiro be home?"

"You wouldn't know it," she said. "He's been locked in his room since he got back from a 'secret mission' this morning. I don't know what he's doing, but he hasn't eaten. He won't let me in to give him anything either. I don't want him to starve himself."

"I'm sure he won't," I said. "He was with Mimi this morning, she probably fed him some strange concoction that isn't sitting too well. Maybe that's what this is about."

"My poor baby's sick?" she lamented. "That's even worse."

"His stomach is like a steel trap," Takeru intervened. "He's probably just not hungry yet." He sent a glare in my direction. Apparently I wasn't helping. I was trying to though.

"He'll probably let us in," Ken continued. "If you wanted us to take something in to him."

"Would you?" she asked.

"Of course," I said. It seemed easiest to just do what she asked, and then she'd probably leave us alone to worry about the future of the world.

"You are dears," she said, heading to the kitchen. We were afraid it was going to take a long time, but she was back within seconds, carrying two trays, one with mini-sandwiches, and the other with brownies. "I bake when I'm nervous," she explained, handing Takeru and Ken the trays. I could see Takeru eyeing up the brownies, no doubt forgetting why we were really here in the process.

She went over to a door labeled 'Koushiro' and tapped on it. Seriously, his door was labelled. Mine wasn't even labelled, and there were four kids in our house. Here there was just him…

"Kou, darling," she said, and I almost snickered. But I held it back just in time. She was trying to help us after all. "Some of your friends are here."

"Mimi and Sora?" he asked, causing us to look at one another in confusion.

"No," his mother corrected him. "Takeru, Miyako and Ken."

His door was open in an instant. "What are you doing here?"

"Daisuke said he'd be here," I said. "Is he?"

"No," Koushiro said. "I was kind of hoping you were Sora."

"We gathered that," I said dryly.

"She has a key too," he said. "And I thought maybe it was the key—excuse the pun—to solving this mystery."

"So you haven't found anything?" I asked, feeling any hope I actually possessed dwindle away.

"Oh," he said. "I've found stuff. I just wish Sora would have brought the key over here. Apparently, a shopping trip for a handbag with Mimi was more important than the issue we've got."

"We've got more information for you," Takeru said, going into detail about the flux in the weather and the strange bolts of lightning exploding from the tear. "What do you think?"

"It seems almost clear now, that the Digital World is trying to reach us," Koushiro said. "But the question is 'Why?'"

"Really?" Takeru asked incredulously. "I would ask 'How' first personally…"

"The same way they did last time," Koushiro said absent mindedly. "I want to know what's wrong with the world this time around."

"Huh?" I asked, feeling myself getting lost in this conversation.

"The first time, the black gears produced by Devimon called us to the Digital World, then the Dark Masters followed," Koushiro explained.

"And then Ken with his control spires and dark rings and spirals brought us back when Gennai said we couldn't return," Takeru added. "And, well, you remember the rest, you were there."

"Yeah," I said remembering the real purpose of the control spires and defeating our enemy once and for all with our hopes and dreams.

"This time," Koushiro said, pulling an ancient looking key from his desk drawer. "The Digital World sent us these keys, instead of the digivices that were sent previously. My guess is that Gennai has no idea that these were sent to us. I would suppose he has our digivices locked up, as they were before they were sent to us."

"And these keys are our ticket back?" Takeru asked.

"I believe so."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Ken is next at bat, and we'll finally get some answers…maybe. You'll have to read to find out.


	8. If the Pieces Fit

**Y/N: **Alright, thank you for the reviews we've received so far. I realize I haven't thanked anyone yet, and that was a mistake on my part. I know that _I_ take every review to heart and try to allow them to influence the writing, to make the story a reflection of both what _you_ want, and what we've already got plotted (which is really the whole *story* it's the characters you're really influencing—though that is not to say that through your influence the plot won't change a bit…), and I'm sure my brother does as well. We really want this story to be a great reading experience for you. That being said, this is Ken's debut chapter of the story, and though it's quite informative, I don't know how well I managed to portray him. He's older of course, but I'm not sure if I captured that…Let me know? If you could I would greatly appreciate it.

**U/N: ** Uhm... Ken :D The next chapter miiight (WILL) be late. But i hope you like this one and stuff, it's pretty cool :D i liked it...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 08: If the Pieces Fit**

_**Ken:**_

I stood there, the room in absolute silence at Koushiro's proclamation. We were going back. Okay, so that wasn't exactly a guarantee. We _could_'ve been going back. I still wasn't going to get my hopes up. I was more concerned than hopeful.

Takeru was almost desperate to get back, I could tell that by looking at him, especially then, in Koushiro's bedroom. His eyes were all lit up, a rather large grin had taken permanent residence on his face, and even the way he held his shoulders was different. He'd been…not depressed, but down since we'd been chucked out of the Digital World. His whole body changed after that. He slouched a bit, he had less of a tolerance for things, and he wasn't the same happy-go-lucky Takeru that I used to call my enemy. But one sentence from Koushiro and it was like he was a little boy again excited for his upcoming birthday.

Hope was a powerful thing.

But it could also be dangerous.

Miyako was on my right, absentmindedly nibbling away at some of the food Mrs Izumi provided. She looked just as skeptical as I felt. She knew enough not to get too excited. But the glint in Koushiro's eye told me he didn't. He was like Takeru, thrilled beyond belief at the mere thought of going back. And that was when I got wary of his reasoning. He didn't really give us any proof. He just declared it to be so.

Like Takeru, he might have been getting desperate.

"How do you know?" I asked. "That it really is the Digital World, I mean."

"How could it not be?" Takeru asked still in a daze.

"We didn't believe in the Digital World before, it wasn't even a possibility," I explained. "And then there was the Dark Ocean and then there was the Land of Dreams. It could be something else. It doesn't have to mean the Digital World."

"Ken," Miyako said, warning me to choose my words carefully. One look at Takeru told me that was very good advice.

"You just have to believe it," he said, crashing down from his state of happiness to snap at me. "Just because you have no hope, doesn't mean Koushiro is wrong. He's Koushiro! He's never wrong."

"Well," Koushiro said, rolling his eyes. "That is simply not true."

"It doesn't matter," I interrupted. I wished Daisuke had been there. His humility still needed a lot of work. And an actual example might have helped him greatly. "What matters is that you two both are desperate."

"I am not desperate," Koushiro said.

"So what?" Takeru said. "I want to go back. Big deal. This is our chance. I'm not going to waste it thinking up other worlds that it could possibly be. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"You realize that 'gift horse' held soldiers that destroyed that entire army," Miyako said. "It wasn't what they thought it was…."

"You too?" he said. I could see tears swelling in his eyes. Whether they were because he was crashing back down to Earth, or because he was simple so angry at us, I couldn't tell. "Why can't you just listen to the facts?"

"What facts?" Miyako and I asked as one.

"You haven't given us any," I continued.

"You expect us to go on blind faith here," Miyako said. "But I _won't_ set myself up for disappointment. I just can't."

"I see I have failed to give you all of my findings," Koushiro said awkwardly. "I suppose in my excitement it must have slipped my mind."

"Yes, you could say that," Miyako said dryly. I slipped her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. She wouldn't want to reach breaking point after all.

"My initial scan," he started, pulling up a window on his laptop. It showed some sort of data that I felt I _should_ understand, but simply couldn't grasp. I'd been feeling that a lot since the dark spore left me. I don't feel like I'm using all of my potential. But there was no way I was going to succumb to the dark spore again, just to understand things that didn't matter in everyday life.

"See this?" he asked, pointing to some blurry section of the screen. "That is a picture I took of the tear. It's pixilated, while the rest of the area is clearly in focus. I found it a little odd that only the tear was out of focus, so I looked at the other photographs I took, and found the same thing in every single one. It was a little suspicious I think."

"It's a portal to the Digital World, since the gate is closed?" Takeru asked, jumping the gun a bit I thought with his conclusion.

"I believe so, yes," Koushiro said absentmindedly. "But I'll tell you how I reached that hypothesis."

"You should do that, yes," Miyako said, looking intently at the pictures. I could see in her eyes how she was bashing down the hope that was so stubbornly trying to take hold in her. I had to admit that I was now in the same boat.

"I took a scan of the area, and then another of just the tear," Koushiro said, pulling up two new windows. "As you can see, on this scan here, the tear is the only part of the area that doesn't show up. I believe it to be because it is not natural it isn't made up of matter, so to speak. This scan was done using the satellite."

"Which is illegal, isn't it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They have yet to notice my use of it," he said nervously, not meeting anyone's eye. "And I've been using it for important things for years."

"Doesn't make it any more legal," I said. The genius had no respect for the law….

"Moving on," he said, pointing to the other scan. "I did this one, using my own computer, which has been to the Digital World on many occasions, and was given many different programs by Gennai…."

He trailed off, as if waiting for something. It at first seemed like he was bragging about his pride and joy, but then it occurred to me that he was waiting for Mimi to slap him across the face for talking about his laptop. I would have laughed, had we not been in a serious discussion.

"Anyway," he said when he realized the slap wasn't coming. "One of the programs Gennai gave me was able to scan the tear, where the satellite was not. The program of course was one I would use to collect data in the Digital World, and what I got from the tear scan, was remarkably similar to that data. If you look here." He pointed to a section of digital code that I figured meant something important. "You find this code, a code I am very familiar with. In fact, I've seen it multiple times in the past. But only in the Digital World. I have some pictures of the ruins from three years ago, as well as an ancient temple I found when I was ten years old. There was also—"

"I don't care where all you found it," Miyako said, saving us from a very precise list I'm sure. "What is it?"

"From what I gather, it is a code indigenous to the Digital World," he said simply. "It doesn't exist anywhere else."

"Have you been to the Dark Ocean?" I asked him. "Or the Land of Dreams?"

"Not the Dark Ocean, no," he said. "And I've never truly been in the Land of Dreams, _but_ I did do a quick scan of it, after Oikawa and Iori left. I found a code similar in structure, but not the same."

"And this is your only proof?"

"That it is specifically the Digital World, yes," he said. "Other than the information you have provided me about the weather, of course."

"So that's it?"

"No," he said. "I also looked into something else. I couldn't fathom why the Digital World would open itself to us by way of such a dangerous opening. I decided to check that the worlds were still as separate and spaced out as they should be."

"Meaning?" I asked.

"You weren't there, perhaps," he said. "But the others should remember. The worlds all co-exist, and as such they must be kept parallel to one another."

He demonstrated this, by drawing colour-coded lines on his laptop screen.

"The worlds must stay like this to exist properly. But it happened twice before, that the space between the Digital World and Earth became unbalanced. The first time was before we returned to fight against the Dark Masters. The Digital World became visible to us on Earth, by way of the sky."

"I remember that," Miyako said. "Iori was in that plane that fell as a result of it."

"Correct," Koushiro said. I rolled my eyes at him. "The second time was years later, when you first became Digidestined. It was the reason I demonstrated this the first time around. But as the balance shifted…." He pressed a key on his laptop, and the lines started swirling together. I gasped at the implication. If he was right, then the worlds were becoming dangerously out of balance, and that could mean dangerous things were coming into play. But that also meant that digimon could come at anytime, good or evil. And we couldn't do anything about it without our digivices and our partners.

But our partners couldn't come through. They were given the crests in order to keep the balance within the Digital World….

"Something is making the Digital World unbalanced?" I asked almost in horror. What would happen to Wormmon and the others?

"Perhaps," Koushiro said. "I can't be completely sure. Without access to the Digital World, I wouldn't be able to collect sufficient data in order to formulate a correct assumption."

"Right," Miyako said. "But _something_ somewhere is off balance? That's what caused the tear?"

"Yes," Koushiro said firmly. "Everything fits, the worlds _are_ melding. It is the only explanation that fits. I tried several hypothesises but the pieces never fit together. This is all I've got. If I had the key Sora collected, I might have a more definite response. My key has a sort of Digital composition. I would need to know if Sora's did as well before declaring them as a way to get into the Digital World."

"But there were only five," Takeru said, suddenly seeming more subdued. "We each needed a digivice in order to get in. Only five of us can go. And you're one of them."

"That is not precisely true," Koushiro said looking at him sympathetically. "The key could simply open the gate. I'm not sure what its purpose is. As I said, I need to look at Sora's to be sure."

"I'm going to call Hikari then," Takeru said. "You don't mind, do you?"

"The phone is on the wall in the kitchen," Koushiro answered.

"She'll want to know all of this. She doesn't like being cooped up," he said as an excuse. As if we doubted his reasoning….

Miyako snorted. "Yeah, sure."

"Right," he said simply and clearly embarrassed. He left the room quickly.

"You said Sora was with Mimi?" Miyako asked Koushiro.

"Yeah," he said suddenly looking intently at his laptop's screen.

"We should call her then," Miyako said.

"I already tried," Koushiro said.

"I can get Mimi to do just about anything," she bragged. "She loves me."

I rolled my eyes, but had to concede. "She's right. Mimi might answer if she's the one calling."

"But I don't have a cell phone," Miyako said, her shoulders drooping. "I had to leave it at home for camp. I didn't pick it up."

"Use mine," Koushiro said tossing it at her.

"But you just said she wouldn't answer you," she whined.

"I know," he said. "But it's the best you've got."

She sighed but dialled it anyway.

"It was in the memory…" Koushiro pointed out after she struggled to remember what order the numbers went in.

"Shh!" she hissed. "It's ringing."

"Put it on speaker," I suggested. "Like Daisuke did earlier."

She sighed, but did as I asked.

"What do you want Koushiro?" Mimi's voice came sounding very cold. It was odd for her to sound that way, since she was usually so happy.

"It's Miyako!" Miyako exclaimed brightly.

"Oh, hello Miyako," Mimi said suddenly sounding like herself. "Why are you on Koushiro's phone? I almost didn't answer, but he'd called so many times I thought it must have been really important…."

"It was," Koushiro grumbled.

"Where are you?" Miyako asked.

"At Jou's house," she said. "Sora and I got separated actually, so I just wound up back here. Jou's not even here either. It's kind of weird being here alone."

"But you live there too," I pointed out.

"I know," she said. "But it doesn't seem like _my_ house at all. And Momoe will be back real soon too, so I'll feel even more out of place."

"She's not back? That's too bad," Miyako said. "I was hoping she would be."

"Oh no," Mimi said. "She was going through a lot, and she said she needed the vacation."

"Enough with the niceties," Koushiro interrupted suddenly.

"So you _are_ there," Mimi said frostily.

"Yes," he said. "We're at my house and she's using _my_ phone. Of course I'm here. We don't have time for a simple conversation. That tear could be doing a lot of damage while we're sitting here wasting time. I need that key Mimi."

"Then call Sora," she said angrily.

"She won't answer me either. I don't understand why," he said. "Even when she's furious at someone, she answers her phone."

"This isn't good," Mimi said quietly.

"What did you do to get her beyond angry?" Miyako asked Koushiro.

"Nothing," he said. "Honest."

"She wasn't mad, not really," Mimi said. "I have to go. I'm going to try calling Sora. This really isn't good."

"What's not good?" Koushiro asked, but Mimi had already hung up. "Great. Now I still have no key."

"What if Sora's in trouble?"

"She was going to visit Hikari after shopping," Koushiro said. "What trouble could she get into?"

"Daisuke was going to Hikari too," I noticed.

"Guys," Takeru said, rushing back in the room. "Hikari didn't answer."

"So you got Taichi then?" Koushiro asked.

"No," he said impatiently. "No one answered. And there should have been an answer. Mrs Yagami is always there on weekdays, since Daisuke is at camp, and Taichi would never leave her alone either. She just isn't allowed to be the only one there."

"So you don't think she was just taking a nap or anything?" Miyako asked worriedly.

"No," he said. "She didn't answer. What if something happened?"

"Daisuke didn't answer either," I commented.

"Neither did Sora," Miyako said.

"Give me my phone," Koushiro said. "I'm calling Taichi."

"You see if you can reach them," Takeru agreed. "I'm going to look for them."

"We'll come with you," Miyako said. I nodded in agreement.

"We have to make sure they're alright."

"Good," Koushiro said. "I'll call Mimi after; see if she's reached Sora yet."

"Right," we said together.

"I'll call if we find anything," I told him.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Jou and Koushiro will play host to the first dual chapter, as well as the finale for the opening arc of Digimon Adventure 04! As tension with the tear and LadyDevimon grows, the suspense reaches a high. Will they be able to figure it out before it's too late?


	9. Otamamon's Annoyance

**Y/N: **Literally could NOT come up with a title… sorry. I'm literally asleep right now and my brother is writing this note. I'm really sorry for faking sick for a month and a half and for not writing this chapter like I was supposed to, oh and reading so many other fanfictions instead of writing this one :D This one is long though too, it's technically as long as like six chapters, so it KINDA makes up for the wait… but not really. I'M TERRIBLE AND STUPID I'M SORRY.

**U/N: **I'm REALLY sorry about the super long wait, but 1, we were REALLY busy, 2, it's a REALLY long/important chapter and we had to make sure we got everything set up correctly for the rest of the story because if we screwed up now we would be SCREEEEWWWWED. And 3, Yukiraking REFUSED to write Koushiro's parts... crazy lady -_-  
Anyway, i hope you like it, and i'm REALLY sorry again... review?  
the next one might be late again... -_- it's yukiraking's, i'll see what i can do in making her move it along...

**Another Y/N: **I edited the ending a bit, just because I missed out on a couple little things, important, but not too important. I just wanted to put them in there. (Edited 6:10 p.m. May 18th)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: The Rift**

**Chapter 09: Otamamon's Annoyance**

_**Jou**_**:**

All I could do was smile at him encouragingly... the poor kid was just not in a good mood. How could I cheer him up? I honestly had no ideas, which was a terrible way to start my new life. He was just looking up at me with his big green eyes, practically begging me to give him advice. I turned my head from him, intimidated by the stare he was giving me and looked over the water of the pond just down the hill we were sitting on. I leaned back against the tree behind me and closed my eyes.

"Jou?" Iori asked, causing me to open my eyes quickly and look down at him. He was wearing purple pants and a white t-shirt covered by a light purple sweater. I didn't know what to say to him honestly. He wanted to know how to live his life, and I couldn't always give him the answers he wanted.

I took a deep breath and tried to respond, but nothing came out and so I shook my head and just let my thoughts try to make sense in words, "Iori, I can't tell you how to do that. You're going to have to figure that out on your own. I can tell you though, don't make her feel bad about herself. Just... try to avoid any heartbreak." The kid was just looking for my advice on how to get out of a tight situation with Noriko, the girl he had a crush on three years ago. Apparently she had taken a liking to him now that he was over her, which just made him sadder about the whole situation. Iori and I had come here at least once a week to just talk about our problems to each other. I usually didn't have any, but he liked hearing about my life, and my school, and even about Momoe, but I had stopped talking about her lately, and he had been wanting to know why, I told him that I'd tell him eventually...

"But she's insane!" Iori insisted, "I can't just tell her nicely—I've tried that!"

"And what did she say?" I asked him, my brows furrowing in thought.

Iori cleared his throat and put on his best Noriko impersonation, "Iori, I know you're just playing hard to get, but that's okay, because I'll wait as long as you need me to. I just need you to be with me."

"That girl sounds hopeless." I said without thinking, "Have you tried to just... avoid her completely?"

Iori nodded, "Yup, but she just follows me around. Like at school during lunch I try to hide from her with Natsuni, but she just... appears! And she even had all of her classes changed so they were the same as mine. I need a new strategy. Being the nice, happy Iori isn't going to cut it this time!"

I almost laughed at him there. Nice? Happy? Those were not the most pronounced qualities in the boy that sat next to me. But if he perceived himself as nice, then I would go along, but happy I couldn't go with. Iori had more problems than a preteen girl, and expected me to make them all magically disappear. As much as I would have loved to do that, I had to let him do things on his own. It was hard though! I wanted to help him so much, and sometimes I couldn't help myself and I took control of the situation... I was going to be a terrible father when the time came... but being a big brother figure to Iori was fun for me, having always been the youngest, I did love being Shin and Shuu's younger brother, no matter how much they teased me and made fun of me, but being the older, more responsible one felt nice.

"Then tell her." I told him, "Just do what you think is best."

"What would you say?" Iori asked, his eyes wide and hopeful.

I sighed, "I would probably tell her that I needed my space and that I didn't like her that way at all."

"I don't think she'd believe me." Iori said, "What would you say if you wanted to be mean?"

"I would..." I paused for a moment, "I might tell her that I was in love with someone else."

"But that would be lying." Iori said flatly, "You know that I don't lie."

"Would it really be a lie though?" I asked him, eyebrows raised.

Without a pause he nodded confidentially, "Yes."

"If you say so." I said to him, "Just, tell her that you're not interested. Just tell her plain and simple and she'll understand eventually I'm sure. It might take a few tries, she seems pretty stubborn. But just make sure you're not too mean. I know what it feels like to have a broken heart." Iori looked up at me with sad and worried eyes but I just shook my head, "Don't worry about it."

"Jou if you want to talk about it, I'm here." Iori said with a smile.

"I know you are." I smiled back at him. And it was true; I could tell that Iori actually cared about what I had to say. He and Mimi were the only ones who actually bothered to talk to me. I talked to Miyako sometimes about her sister, and occasionally saw Ken when I visited, but other than them I hadn't really seen the digidestined. Part of it was of course because of my studies, but lately I'd been getting less homework to do, and was even working on the field often during my Veterinarian night classes, so I did have time. Especially now in the summer. I had hoped that everything would go back to normal once I had time to talk to them all, but it seemed that they all had better things to do.

"So what's up with you and Mimi?" Iori asked, "I heard from Miyako last weekend that she's living in your house."

"Yeah she is." I confirmed.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Iori asked quickly, "What's going on?"

"Mimi moved from America and had nowhere to stay, so she's staying with me." I said slowly.

"How did Momoe feel about it?" Iori asked.

"Well I don't know. I expect she wouldn't care... the way things are going I honestly don't think it matters anymore." I sighed deeply.

"I see..." Iori said, clearly upset that I wasn't expanding on that.

"Okay, I'll tell you." I caved finally, "See, a few months back, Momoe and I—" I was cut off as my cell phone began to ring. I pulled it quickly out of my pocket and answered it. I knew who it was because of the ringtone. "Mimi? What's wrong?"

"Have you seen Sora?" She asked quickly.

"What? No..." I told her, "Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't have time to explain!" Mimi growled, but I could tell she was frustrated, but not at me. "I need to find Sora—she won't answer her phone!"

"Shopping emergency?" I asked with a smirk.

"Jou this is serious!" Mimi snapped. I straightened up quickly. Mimi was never serious, something must really be wrong. "Do you have any idea where Sora might have gone?"

"Not really," I admitted, "Have you tried Yamato's house? I hear she's living there..."

"No I haven't!" Mimi admitted. "I have to go call him!"

"Mimi what's wrong?" I hissed into the phone. Iori gave me a quizzical look but I motioned with my hands that I'd explain in a minute.

"I told you I don't have time! Sora's in trouble!" Mimi said hurriedly.

"Mimi you can't just leave it at that!" I said quickly, "You have to explain."

"Fine!" She snapped, "Just one second..." There was silence for a few moments and then I heard ringing. I wasn't going to lie, I was pretty confused.

"Hello?" Yamato's voice came through the phone.

"Where's Sora?" Mimi asked. I realized she must have made a three way call.

"With you...?" Yamato responded slowly, "Isn't she?"

"Dammit!" Mimi yelled.

"Why? What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'd like to know that myself." I admitted.

"What's going on?" Iori asked panicked. I told him again that I'd explain later but he shook his head, "Jou what's wrong?"

I quickly put my phone on speaker phone and shrugged my shoulders.

"Sora and I were attacked!" Mimi cried out quickly, "I need to find her. I have to go, I'm sorry guys, let me know if you find her!"

And then Mimi hung up the phone.

"What?" Iori, Yamato and I asked as one.

"Can someone please explain to me what just happened?" Iori asked.

"Sora was attacked?" I said slowly, unsure of what I should have been thinking about that. Sure it was awful, but what was she attacked by?

"This is a joke right?" Yamato asked.

"If it is, then we're both being pranked." I told him.

"So Sora really is in trouble?" Yamato asked.

"I guess so..." I said, unable to believe it, and I had a feeling Yamato and Iori felt the same way. "Look, Yamato, meet us at the park by Iori's apartment. We'll look together."

"Right!" Yamato said quickly hanging up the phone. I put my phone back in my pocket and turned to Iori. He looked really scared. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be okay." I told him, "Sora's been attacked, kidnapped, and de-digitalized by digimon before. No one in the human world can defeat her. She's like... super woman. But with less powers."

Iori let a small smile grow on his face before letting it fall once more. "Jou... what if you're wrong? What if Sora's dead?"

"She's not."

"But what if she is?" Iori asked loudly, "I've never gotten time to bond with her! She's an amazing person! Kind, smart, pretty, powerful—and I've never spoken to her!"

"Iori, don't worry." I said hopping to my feet, "Sora is going to be fine. You'll have your chance to talk to her."

He nodded slowly, but I could tell he didn't fully believe me, but that was likely because I was a little sceptical myself.

The two of us waited in silence for a couple minutes until Yamato arrived loudly on his motorcycle. The bike was blue and black, but that was about as far as my machinery knowledge went, but I did notice that he had a sidecar attached to it. He zoomed across the grass of the park and up the hill, barely slowing down until he reached us. He stopped abruptly and ripped his blue helmet off of his head. His blonde hair was messy and his face was worried. He was of course wearing a leather jacket—I couldn't remember the last time I had seen him without one to be honest.

"Where to?" He asked as Iori begrudgingly climbed into the side car and I hopped on the bike behind Yamato. Iori handed me a helmet that had been in the side car as he pulled one on for himself.

"I honestly don't know." I admitted, "She's _your_ girlfriend, where do you think she'd go?"

Yamato immediately took off without warning and I screamed as I threw my hands around his waist. I had no clue where he was headed, but he seemed to know and that was all that mattered. Well not _all_ that mattered, because the fact that I was scared out of my mind to be on the back of his motorcycle mattered as well.

Yamato slowed down in front of a building that I didn't recognize, but looked at the sign that said "closed" and rode off quickly. We passed a strange market place that was surrounded by police cars, and so Yamato drove in to see if that was where Sora had been.

"You can't be here." The nearest police officer said to us as Yamato pulled in closer.

"What happened around here?" Yamato asked him, taking his helmet off.

"That's classified." The man said.

"Well was it my girlfriend?" Yamato asked impatiently, "Is Sora here?"

"Who?" The man asked, "Do you know something about this sir?" Yamato quickly threw his helmet back over his head and drove off again. I could tell that he was panicking now, checking places like the beach and the soccer field she used to play at, grasping at straws to help us find her. But finally he came to a complete stop outside of a greenhouse.

"This is honestly the last place I can think of." Yamato admitted as he climbed off of his bike and took his helmet off. "Otherwise I don't know where she is." I could literally see the frustration in his eyes as he turned toward the building and walked toward it. I noticed Iori hurrying after him, his helmet under his arm so I slid off of the bike and followed them.

Yamato knocked on the door to the large greenhouse, but no one came to the door so he pushed it open and looked inside. "Hello?" he asked, but no one answered. "That's weird; she's usually in here at this time..."

"Yamato?" A woman asked from behind us causing me to jump in alarm.

"Sora?" Yamato asked quickly turning around; a smile on his face, but it fell as he took in the sight of the aging woman. "Oh, hello Mrs Takenouchi."

"You thought I was Sora..." Mrs Takenouchi said, trailing off, "How is she?" Sora's mother had worry lines etched upon her face, but her eyes and smile were warm. Her hair was greying and her glasses were sliding down her face.

"She's fine." Yamato said without a second thought, "I just can't find her. She hasn't been here by any chance has she?"

"No," The woman said, her smile falling. "Yamato, would you tell her that I love her?"

"When I find her I will do that." Yamato nodded, "Do you know why she hasn't... come to see you?" Yamato asked awkwardly.

Her mother nodded, "I do."

She didn't seem to be willing to tell us, and I saw that Yamato knew that too, he nodded and said, "Any idea where she might be?"

"Have you tried Taichi's house? She always liked him." She patted Yamato on the shoulder as his face turned blank, and I was unable to read his emotion. "She likes you more of course." She smiled to him and patted him on the cheek. "Have a good day boys." She said as she stepped past us and into her greenhouse to tend to her flowers.

"You too..." Yamato said slowly as he turned to us. "Do you really think she'd go to Taichi instead of me if she was in trouble?"

I shook my head, "No, unless there was a good reason."

"She loves you Yamato." Iori said, "Not Taichi."

He nodded as he walked slowly back to his bike and climbed on, "Come on, I'm going to go check Taichi's house."

We hurried toward him and onto the bike, and again he started suddenly and quickly, shooting down the street toward the Yagami household. We pulled up to the apartment building and Yamato stopped the bike.

"Which one is theirs?" Iori asked slowly, "It wouldn't happen to be... that one... would it?" He pointed up and both Yamato and I followed his point to a window up near the top of the apartment building. The window was smashed to pieces.

"Dammit Taichi!" Yamato said quickly as he jumped from the bike and ran toward the stairs out front of the building. Iori and I followed him at a run, but he was much faster than us. By the time we had made it to the white door that read "Yagami" Yamato had already run inside, and left the door open. We hurried inside and looked around. Nothing looked too out of place.

"What's this?" Iori asked, rushing forward and picking up a crumpled piece of paper up off of the hardwood floor. It was right next to the dining room table that was empty except for a floral center piece and a pencil. Iori flattened the paper out and read it quickly before going back to the beginning and reading it out loud. "'_Dear Mom, Dad, and/or Willis, I have gone to Koushiro's house. I will be back. I would tell my brother(s) where I was going if only they weren't trying to rip each other's heads off. Okay I love you all! Be back soon!__ I think!_' It's in Hikari's handwriting." Iori explained, "Should we go to Koushiro's house?"

I nodded, "I think that would be our next stop." I smiled at him, "Good work detective Iori."

"I'm not a detective... that's Ken," Iori laughed, "Where'd Yamato go?"

I motioned toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms on our right with my head and then led the way for Iori into the one at the end with an open door. "Yamato?" I asked poking my head through the door. There was a set of bunkbeds sitting against the far wall and two dressers sitting side by side on the wall opposite to the window. The light was flickering on and off eerily. Iori and I cautiously stepped into the room to see Yamato staring out of the broken window. I made to step toward him but Iori stopped me and motioned to the ground. I looked and saw that I had almost stepped on what looked to be a squished watermelon. I turned to Iori in confusion. What had gone on here? "Yamato what's wrong?" he didn't answer.

"We think we know where Hikari is," Iori said with a small comforting smile, "We should go talk to her and see if she knows where Sora is."

"Guys, look at this." Yamato said, ignoring us.

The two of us hurried toward him, stepping over the watermelon. "What is it?" Iori asked as we stood on either side of him and stared out the window. He pointed directly toward a building in the distance, "What's that?"

"I think that's a church." Iori said.

"I mean the thing that's on top." Yamato said. Iori looked closer and shrugged, "I can't see that far."

I pulled out my phone instead of looking, "I'm going to call Koushiro." Neither of them heard me, so I just shrugged my shoulders, turned away from them and dialled his cell phone number. The phone rang repeatedly and then went to his answering machine. _"__I'm sorry, I'm doing something incredibly important and what you have to say is likely not as important as the discovery I'm in the process of making. But leave a message and I may get back to you."_ I hung up the phone and saw, sitting on Taichi's dresser was his old telescope. I grinned to myself and picked it up. "Yamato, catch." I told him.

He spun around in time to catch the telescope I had tossed at him. He shot me a quick smile and turned back to the window and used the telescope. "Is that...?" he asked himself, handing Iori the telescope.

"It certainly looks like it..." Iori said. I hurried toward them and Iori handed me the telescope. I looked through it hurriedly and looked around until I found the church they had been staring at. Sitting on top of the church was a strange black and red gargoyle like creature.

"Okay, what is it?" I asked them, taking the telescope from my eye and handing it to Iori who put it back up to his face to see the gargoyle again.

"It looks like..." Yamato said slowly, "Never mind. It's not possible."

"What did you think it was?" I asked impatiently.

"Doesn't matter," Yamato said flatly.

"Guys!"

"It's SkullSatamon." Iori said flatly.

"What?" I gasped.

"No it's not." Yamato said, "It just looks like him."

"How many gargoyles do you know that can fly?" Iori asked pointing to the window. Yamato and I turned back to the window and gasped as the gargoyle's black bat wings were spread across the sky as it made its way toward us.

"We need to leave," Yamato said quickly, "Like, now."

_**Koushiro:**_

"Damn it."

"Koushiro," my mother scolded.

"I'm twenty years old mother," I said rolling my eyes.

"Well, why did your friends leave in such a rush?"

I knew what she was trying to do. I was frustrated, so she was going to try and take my mind off of things. She was kind of protective like that. She didn't want anything to hurt me, or depress me, or anger me. Fundamentally she wanted me to be the quintessential happy-go-lucky child that nothing bad ever happened to.

It was impossible of course for me to be a _typical_ teenager, even if I wasn't socially challenged or the biggest computer nerd in existence (according to Mimi anyway). I'd been to the Digital World. That right there was enough to make it harder for me to connect with other people.

Throw my adoption and I've got a whole slew of complexes.

"Sora's missing," I told her, trying not to be too frantic. "And so are Daisuke and Hikari. I called Taichi too and got no answer, both with his house number and his cell phone. I don't know what's going on, but if Sora had just brought that key…"

"What key?"

"I don't really know," I admitted. "It fell from the sky, or so she says. It might have been one of the four I have to find. It might not. It probably is though, which just leaves three more to find. I have to figure out a way to actually access the Digital World by way of the tear at the campsite with the keys. Or without the keys, which would be much easier, but much more unlikely. All while knowing my friends are missing, and Mimi seemed to think Sora at least was in trouble. Knowing our luck, all of them were attacked, and Hikari is sick all the time, and I'm worried that Miyako, Ken, Takeru and Mimi are all going to get caught up in whatever it is."

"That seems like a lot to put on your shoulders," Mom said softly. "Do you suppose a short break would help?"

"No," I said with a sigh. "I need to finish this. I need to figure it out."

"Are you becoming obsessed again?"

"No," I lied. "Why would I do that?"

She didn't even dignify that with a response. She simply raised her eyebrow at me.

"Yes," I said reluctantly. "I feel compelled to do this. Everyone is counting on me. They expect me to have the answers, and I don't want to disappoint them."

"I think it's more than that," she told me.

"I don't want to disappoint myself?" I questioned. She was always doing this. She made me come up with my own answers to questions she asked when she very clearly knew the answers already. If I weren't nearly obsessed with finding answers, I would easily have been annoyed by this.

"And…?"

"Tentomon," I said quietly, as though I were revealing a very closely guarded secret. And in a way I was. I never told Mom the promise I made to my digimon partner. My friends knew, but telling my mother seemed…wrong. She wouldn't have understood.

"I do miss seeing him around," she said flippantly. I suppose I'd never really _did_ tell her what happened.

"Yes, well, I do as well," I said trying not to glare at her for bringing it up. I usually did so well at blocking out painful memories and uncomfortable topics. And my mother usually did such a good job of letting me bottle everything up….

Just then the door burst open, revealing a group of four frantic and familiar people.

"Koushiro!" Daisuke and Taichi shouted.

"Just break down my door why don't you?" I commented dryly.

"It's so nice to see you," Mom said smiling brightly at the intruders. The fact that they literally invited themselves inside did not seem to occur to her. "And Sora, you aren't hurt, that's good to see."

"Sora?" I asked, suddenly looking at the guests with an interest.

"Yeah," she said, looking up at me. She was doubled over, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

"Give me your key," I told her holding my hand out.

"Why don't you ask nicely?" she asked, clutching what I assumed to be her key tightly in her hand.

"Why don't you do as I ask?" I asked rolling my eyes. "I don't have time for this."

"You can have mine," Hikari said. I looked over to her in shock—and not just because she'd run all the way here by herself (though Daisuke and Taichi seemed to be having a debate over who it was at fault for that)—because she was handing me a sparkling white key of her own. I stared at it for a moment, not making any move to take it from her. I could feel her staring at me as if I suddenly lost all of my curiosity—I did that once…it wasn't pretty.

"Right, I said, as she motioned for me to take it. "I'll just run some scans and compare them with the results my key showed."

"Wait," Sora said. "You had your own key this entire time? You didn't even _need_ mine?"

"Sora," Taichi interrupted. "We don't have time for this. Just give him your damn key. Koushiro get whatever equipment you need, we have to leave. Like now."

"Why?" I asked at the same time as my mother. I had already forgotten she was there. It was rather awkward having your mother there trying to understand as you were trying to save the world. It kind of took away from the whole…superhero effect.

"No time to explain," Daisuke said, glancing nervously at the window at the end of the hall, before rushing over to close the drapes. "Keep out of sight if you can while you get your junk. We've got to move."

"Clearly you did not hear me ask the first time," I said starting to lose my patience. "Why?"

"I told you we don't have time to explain!" Daisuke shouted.

"If you have time to argue, you have time to explain," I said simply, taking the key into my bedroom, thrilled at the prospect of figuring out how to get into the Digital World.

"Koushiro," Taichi, Daisuke and Sora yelled out after me. I ignored them. If it was as important as they clearly thought it was, they would simply tell me why I must leave, lugging much more equipment than strictly necessary.

"Interesting," I murmured. The others were trying to convince my mother to order me to listen to them. I rolled my eyes. It wouldn't work. My mother hadn't told me to do anything since I was six—I was too well behaved to need it. She was happiest when I was content.

"Oh, I couldn't do that," she was telling them, causing me to chuckle. "Now, Otamamon is it? You must be hungry. I have some brownies and sandwiches in the kitchen. Your other friends were here just a few minutes ago really. They were looking for you. They didn't eat much though. I hope they've had enough. Maybe I should have sent some with them?"

"I'm sure they're fine, Mrs Izumi," Hikari said kindly. "But it really is important that we leave. We can't put more people in danger than there already are."

"Danger?" I asked, tearing my gaze off of my computer screen. "What's dangerous?"

"Oh, so you'll listen to Hikari," Sora said.

"At least someone does," Hikari said giving the two boys a pointed look. They turned away sheepishly.

I gave them a look, one that told them I had no interest in that particular dispute at the moment, and wanted to know what was dangerous. I suppose they must have got the message, because Sora started telling me about her shopping exploits.

"I mean what does it matter that I have this old backpack anyway? It's not like it's Mimi's," she was saying.

"Mimi often talks about stealing the bag away and burning it," I supplied. "It's a pastime of hers."

"Oh?" Sora asked raising her eyebrow. "I'm getting her a backpack for her birthday, one that's falling apart."

"I don't care," I said. "What does shopping have to do with anything?"

"Oh. Right. Well, the vendor lady that was helping me with the purses turned to me and tried to steal the key. Mimi made it into a necklace and everything. Then she claimed it was hers. I mean it fell from the sky. There is no way it was hers. But then her disguise sort of melted away, revealing LadyDevimon."

She said it so nonchalantly that it almost didn't register.

"LadyDevimon!" I exclaimed after a rather long silence.

"That is what I said, yes," she said rolling her eyes.

"That's why we have to leave," Daisuke said. "She was chasing after us. We lost her a few streets back, but it's only a matter of time."

"Where are you going?" Mom asked nervously. She didn't like the idea of me being far away again. She nearly cried when I was just going to New York for a short stay. This however was life or death…

"We don't know," Taichi told her. "Somewhere safe I suppose. Where that is though…"

"We could go to the camp," Daisuke suggested.

"Not yet," I said firmly staring in surprise at the scans my computer had just announced done.

"What part of 'LadyDevimon is chasing us' don't you understand?" Daisuke shouted at me.

"I don't want to lead her to our only possible gate into the Digital World. Not when she would be determined to keep us from closing or utilizing it," I told them. "Not when my hypothesis has just proven faulty."

I wasn't very pleased about that fact. It meant I had no idea how to get back into the Digital World. The keys weren't what I hoped. Collecting them all wouldn't open the Digital World….

"What do you mean?" Hikari asked slipping into my desk chair I'd foregone in my haste. "Is there something wrong with my key?"

"No," I said. "At least not to my knowledge. What I meant was simply that it is not what I thought it was. It doesn't have the same digital composition that _my_ key has. It is similar to a degree, but this code, it has no part in the Digital World. It's similar yet entirely different. These symbols here, they match the code on mine. Here, I'll pull it up to show you."

"Koushiro," Taichi said impatiently.

"We have time for this," I said firmly. "It's an anomaly. This section of code on yours, Hikari, it shouldn't work, but it does. It's the strangest sequence I've ever seen."

"It's not a key from the Digital World then?" she asked softly.

"No," I confirmed. "At least…it shouldn't be. But mine _is_, according to the facts. And they all came at the same time. Sora, can I have your key now?"

"Give it to him," Taichi said with a sigh. "Or we'll end up being attacked by LadyDevimon because we're just sitting ducks right now."

I ignored his snarky comment, trying to hold onto some miniscule hope that we'd be able to get back to the Digital World, the one place where my uncontrollable curiosity was actually met, where I felt like I was challenged.

"It's bronze," I commented, making a note next to the notes on Hikari's and my own.

"Yes," Daisuke said tapping his foot quickly.

"Just making a note," I said. "Mine was copper, or it appeared to be copper. It was really a material made up entirely of digital coding. Hikari's wasn't even metal, it looked like painted iron to be honest, yet it was made up of an unknown composition. I am simply making my observations and hypotheses while the scan is being completed."

"Can you hurry the scan up?" Daisuke asked.

"Koushiro, darling," Mom called. "Are your friends staying for dinner?"

"No," I shouted.

"But I was going to make—"

"No," I shouted again. Then I looked to Daisuke. "To both of you."

"We don't have time," he whined.

"We have to have time. I can't carry all of this equipment," I told him. "And I don't trust any of you to do it for me. It will only be a minute. And digimon cannot sense another's location; I do not understand why you are in such a rush to be back in the open again. We aren't targets if we aren't spotted."

"That actually does make sense you know," Hikari said, still relaxing on my desk chair. "I'm not actually in a hurry to move anymore."

"Are you okay?" both Taichi and Daisuke asked, rushing to her side.

I rolled my eyes at them. "She's fine."

"You can't know that," they insisted.

"He's right," Hikari said with a sigh.

Ping!

"It's done!" I announced excitedly.

"Good, then let's get going," Taichi announced.

"No, that can't be right," I murmured, having heard his comment and decided to ignore it. "Are you sure this key fell from the sky? What am I saying? Both you and Mimi claimed it did. And there is a small amount of digital residue, but it is simply a bronze key. Its composition is not a perfect match with bronze, but the differences it has are so miniscule."

"Mine isn't a digi-key at all?" Sora asked disappointed.

"Hikari's isn't either," I said pointedly. I was uncomfortable. She clearly needed reassurance, but there was nothing I could tell her that was true, that would make her feel better. And if it wasn't true, there was no need sharing it. I wouldn't want to skew the facts.

"Fine, whatever," she said, roughly ripping the key from my hand. "Let's go. Now."

While I was fine with ignoring Daisuke and Taichi, the look on Sora's face—one of fury—made me stuff my laptop, power cord, digital camera, cell phone, webcam and something that was recently deemed illegal by Ken that would allow me to connect with the satellite should it be necessary.

I don't see how it would illegal for me. I've only ever used it while attempting to save the world.

"Right," I said. "Mom!"

"Yes darling?"

"I'm leaving," I told her bluntly.

"Come back soon," she said. Her eyes communicated what she did not: her desperation for me to come back alive. I simply nodded. "Do you want me to get Otamamon from the kitchen?"

"Yeah, better let him come with us. He'll just eat everything you have if we don't," Daisuke said, following her into the kitchen to collect the digital tadpole. I could hear Otamamon's surprisingly annoying voice floating towards us as Daisuke brought him back.

"And then I ate all the rest of the brownies that were on the plate too."

My eye twitched, but I managed to not glare at the digimon. I hadn't got a single brownie out of that batch. And Mom only baked them to get me out of my room. But brownies weren't important right now. I had to find something else that would trigger the key into opening the Digital World. If my key wasn't enough—and I'd been at the rift when I found it after all—and the other keys weren't _from_ the Digital World (though I was inclined to believe they were sent from there, they simply originated somewhere else), I would need something else….

Meiyomon!

I was out the door and running towards Takeru, Miyako and Iori's building before the others could even ask me to "Wait up!"

_**Jou:**_

"GO FASTER!" I heard Iori yell over the roar of Yamato's motorcycle engine.

Yamato shook his head, so I assumed he had heard, and had made the decision to stay at the same speed. I didn't know how the whole motorcycle thing worked, but he did, so I trusted him. I looked over my shoulder and gasped at the sight of Skullsatamon advancing upon us. His black wings were spread wide in the air, and his red bones were catching the light from the sun and shining brightly. In his hand was a long black staff with chains hanging off of it. The staff had a red claw at the end holding onto a yellow orb, and I had a feeling it was dangerous.

"GO FASTER!" I screamed, agreeing with Iori.

Yamato sped up a little, but not enough to make any difference. Skullsatamon was going to catch us unless we could somehow shake him off. How had be found us to begin with? Maybe digimon had some sort of power that made them know when people were watching them... but it didn't matter, I didn't want to think about any secret powers Skullsatamon had, and I _certainly_ didn't want to think about how he had gotten from the Digiworld to this one, what was really important was escaping him and then figuring out what was wrong.

I knew Iori would be terrified, but I couldn't, and didn't want to comfort him. He was old enough to take care of himself, or so he told me. At least three times a week. I understood that he wanted to take charge of his life, but I also understood that, as the youngest he was bound to be babied.

"Bone Blaster!" Skullsatamon roared. I screamed loudly as Yamato took a sudden and sharp turn down an alley way to the right, swerving in front of one of the many vehicles desperately trying to flee from the advancing sky devil. I tried to look over my shoulder to see if Skullsatamon had followed us, but Yamato was taking many sharp turns through the back alleys, and in between houses, and once even driving across a woman's lawn and under her clothes line. I heard her scream, and I turned back seeing Skullsatamon flying past her.

"Yamato we have to get rid of him!" I yelled loudly.

"I KNOW!" Yamato snapped angrily. "Just let me think!"

I shrunk back, a little put out that Yamato had yelled at me, but I could understand how much pressure he was in. Because if we died, it would be on his head... but he'd be dead so it wouldn't matter to him too much—but it would still be sad. Yamato swerved onto the street once more almost hitting a couple walking their dog in the process.

I heard a loud boom behind me and Yamato jerked quickly and swerved the bike. I looked back after Yamato had steadied himself again and saw a cloud of smoke above a scorch mark on the sidewalk near that couple with the dog. Their terror stricken faces turned pale and, if possible, even more terrified as Skullsatamon burst from the clouds of smoke and soared towards us.

Luckily though we seemed to be pulling ahead, and it was apparent that he was angry as he fell behind. But unfortunately we only had so much more road to go. The docks were coming up fast and there wasn't anywhere to turn off of the road.

I looked around at all the swerving cars, stopping in their tracks as Skullsatamon passed them, and to all the people watching in fear. Some with children, or elderly people, and someone wearing a strange assortment of pink clothing.

"STOP!" I yelled suddenly.

Yamato instinctively listened. I looked back and knew I was right. I ripped the helmet off of my head and dropped it onto the ground and set off at a run.

"JOU!" Yamato screamed.

"Come back!" Iori yelled.

I didn't look back but I heard Yamato's bike start up again as he started driving once more. It kind of hurt that he would just leave me, but then I noticed he was following me as I ran back in the direction of the evil digimon who was trying to kill us.

I slowed my running as I came to a group of confused people, and pushing through them was none other than Mimi.

"Mimi!" I cried loudly, wrapping my arms around her. "You're okay?"

She nodded, "What's going on?" She asked at the strange sight of Yamato and Iori riding a motorcycle together. Iori was holding the helmet I had dropped.

"Iori get out." Yamato said. "You three hide. "I have an idea."

"Yamato—" Iori tried.

"NOW!" Yamato screamed.

Iori begrudgingly stumbled out of the motorcycle and hurried toward Mimi and I. The three of us backed into the crowd as Yamato turned his bike around once more and drove off. I heard a loud _whoosh_ as the great bat wings flapped overtop of us and Skullsatamon followed Yamato's decoy.

After the screams of the surrounding crowd died down the three of us hurried onto the road to watch Yamato's plan come into action. The crowd followed us and surrounded us, watching alongside us. I only hoped Yamato knew what he was doing and wasn't just trying to show off...

Yamato drove straight toward the docks and about halfway to the end of the nearest one, then stopped. Skullsatamon landed behind him and walked slowly toward him. I could only imagine the fear that would have been coursing through his body, and if it was anything like the fear that had me clinging tightly to Mimi's arm... Skullsatamon walked around Yamato and faced him, standing in front of him. They stayed that way for a while, it seemed they were talking, and then suddenly Yamato and his bike shot forward, smashing into the digimon and then off of the dock. Yamato had jumped from his bike just in time and then quickly set off, running back down the dock as his motorcycle took Skullsatamon into the water. I watched as Yamato hurried as quick as he could and then as he ducked into the first alleyway to the right. As he did so the water exploded and Skullsatamon rose from the water, the bike in his hand.

The crowd around us began to scream as the bike was tossed aside. I grabbed Mimi's hand and tried to grab Iori's but he was gone.

"Iori!" I yelled as loud as I could to be heard over the screaming people.

"Jou! I'm here!" he screamed. I tried to follow his voice, but the crowd was pushing me the other direction.

"Get to Yamato!" I ordered.

"Okay! I'll try!" he yelled. His voice was faint, but as long as he had heard me then everything would be fine. I hoped.

Mimi began pulling me in the direction the crowd was pushing as the angry digimon soared toward us. We made it in between two buildings, into an alley and then set off at a run without looking back. I wanted desperately to go back for Iori, but this was his chance to prove that he was old enough to take care of himself. The back alleyway of the street ran behind all of the buildings, so we could see Yamato coming from pretty far back.

He was safe, which put a smile on my face.

"Jou, can you please explain to me what's going on?" Mimi asked suddenly as our running slowed. "How are the digimon getting into the real world?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "Wait... 'the digimon'? As far as I know, there's only this one."

She shook her head quickly, "Ladydevimon too." I gasped, but Mimi continued, "That's why I need to find Sora! She and I were shopping and Ladydevimon came out of nowhere! She was impersonating a purse shop owner or something. I don't really know... what's going on?"

"I honestly have no idea Mimi." I told her with a frown, "I wish I did."

"Well... we need to talk to Koushiro." She said suddenly, "He'll know what's going on. He always does."

I nodded and looked back to Yamato, he was still running toward us. He slowed to a stop finally, right in front of us and panted heavily as he took his helmet off and simply dropped it. He smiled awkwardly at Mimi who threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. I could practically _feel_ the awkward. Mimi and Yamato hardly spoke to each other, so I could understand the awkwardness of the hug.

"That was the stupidest thing you've ever done!" Mimi said finally, pulling away from the hug.

"I'm sorry—" Yamato tried.

"Don't be." She smiled, "It was amazing—" She was cut off by a loud scraping noise above us. We looked up to see Skullsatamon's clawed hand clinging to the side of one of the buildings, with one hand, his other hand still held the long staff.

All three of us froze as we stared at him, unsure of what to do as his black beady eyes darted back and forth between the three of us.

"Hey..." Mimi said slowly, raising her hand and pointing toward the digimon. "Where did you get that?" At first I didn't know what she was talking about, but then I noticed that hanging from one of the many chains that were wrapped around his staff hung a long golden key. Mimi slowly turned her head toward me. "Koushiro wanted the keys. They're important... I think we need that key."

"This key belongs to me." Skullsatamon said snidely, his voice quiet and raspy. "Now one of you must have a key as well..."

Mimi and I looked to each other and shrugged and then to Yamato who shook his head. "No we don't." Yamato told him. "I guess you were chasing the wrong people."

"No... I was chasing the right people." Skullsatamon smirked. "Whether you have a key or not does not change my plans for you. I want you all dead and that's what's going to happen. He began sliding down the building, his claws digging into the building and creating a loud irritating grinding noise. Slowly his feet came in contact with the ground and he stood straight up and took a step toward us and raised his staff. "Well this should be fun."

I tried to run but I couldn't move, and it wasn't out of fear. For some reason my body wouldn't listen to me, I couldn't even move my eyes. They were fixed on Skullsatamon as I took one of his long pointed fingers and traced Yamato's face gently. "You first then?" he smirked.

He raised his staff one more time slowly as he looked into Yamato's eyes. I felt something fly right past my head and watched as a large rock smashed into the long staff. The staff flew out of the demon's hand and clattered against the cold pavement. I looked back sharply and gasped in air, realizing that I could move again. I grabbed Mimi's arm and started running. I heard Yamato follow behind, and at first I didn't know where the rock had come from but as Iori leapt out from behind a building with another large stone in his hand I understood. We ducked quickly and he threw the stone. I heard it come in contact with something and then a grunt of pain. I smiled at Iori who gestured for us to follow him. We hurried down the thin alleyway he had been hiding in and then all crowded around what looked to be a rusted manhole.

Iori grabbed at the metal circle and smiled. "Who's going first?" he asked.

"I'd rather face Skullsatamon..." I said slowly, but changed my mind quickly as Mimi jumped into the hole without a second thought. Yamato followed her quickly. Iori motioned for me to go in next but I shook my head.

"Suit yourself." He said jumping in.

I heard Skullsatamon roar in anger and quickly followed them, sliding the rusted metal cover back into its place.

_**Koushiro:**_

"Where are we going?" Daisuke shouted after me. Honestly. He was the one lecturing me on our need for a speedy getaway, and there he was, shouting loud enough that even Gennai would be able to hear all the way in the Digital World, LadyDevimon—who was apparently only a few streets over—would have no problems finding us.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Seriously, Koushiro, where are we going?" Taichi added in a much quieter voice.

Sora and Hikari followed behind, Sora sporting Daisuke's—and previously Taichi's—goggles, and Hikari leaning on her for support, while cuddling Otamamon to her chest. Daisuke was running after me with Taichi close behind. I was pleasantly surprised that neither caught up to me right away. I wasn't much of an athlete after all.

"Koushiro?" Sora asked. I sighed.

"We're going to the Hida residence," I informed them impatiently. The less time we spent talking, the faster we'd get there. I was already running, I didn't want to exert any more energy in case I needed it later. "We need Mieyomon."

"Why?" Hikari asked genuinely curious. I couldn't resist fulfilling her curiosity. I absolutely hated it when someone left me without information after all. And it was _Hikari_. You just couldn't ignore her. She was a sweet girl…and she was sick. That was enough to make even me sway to her every will. Not that I ever really saw her. Or anyone other than Mimi for that matter…

"He's a digimon," I supplied.

"So am I!" Otamamon shouted indignantly.

He was of course. I just didn't want to rely on him. I was not particularly fond of him.

"That is inconsequential," I informed him.

"I am so consequential," he protested grumpily. He turned to look at Hikari. "What does that mean? Does it mean I'm a digimon, 'cause I am."

"I know you are," she said kindly.

"And a moron," I grumbled.

"Are we going to get another watermelon?" Otamamon asked. "I was eating it all but that LadyDevimon that attacked us made me leave it behind. It was funny that I was eating it right?"

"You've already asked that," Hikari said. "And I said it was."

"And I say it isn't," I mumbled. "I'm going to get Meiyomon, because he can actually understand what I tell him, and because I like him better than you by a substantial margin."

"That was mean," Hikari told me.

"And true," I said. "He's annoying me." I ran up the stairwell, leading to the front door of the building. I got strange looks from passersby as I did so. Some even scoffed at me. I ignored them. I was good at that. Blocking out the insignificant parts of the world, to allow more focus on what is truly important: safety and the gaining of knowledge.

"We need to be careful," Sora reminded us, when we were in the hallway, away from the bright day outside, with no way for LadyDevimon to spot us.

"I have yet to see her," I told them, making it clear that I wasn't sure whether to believe them or not. "If she _is_ truly here in our world, we have been fortunate enough to outsmart her."

"You think you're so smart," Otamamon said in a petulant voice.

"That's because it's true," I said condescendingly. I was not enjoying his company one bit. Why couldn't he have been left with Jun Motomiya?

"Koushiro, Otamamon," Sora scolded.

I rolled my eyes, but Otamamon looked properly sheepish.

"Which one is Iori's?" I asked, trying to imply I was getting impatient with the turn in the conversation.

"He's number 15," Daisuke said. "But he's not even home."

"You couldn't have said that before?" Sora and I asked at once.

"Didn't seem important," Daisuke said with a shrug.

"_You_ don't seem important," Taichi said, pouting like a small child.

"Enough," Sora said. "I've already taken the goggles, I'm not afraid to treat you like the spoiled little boys you are."

"I'm twenty-one," Taichi said affronted.

"And you're acting five," I told him. "If I didn't know for a fact that you were indeed a year older than me, I would never believe it."

"Shut up," he said in a way that proved our point.

"This is it," Hikari announced. "We should knock, in case he came back home. We can't leave him out of the loop after all."

"Good idea," Daisuke and Taichi said simultaneously, before glaring at each other.

"I'll do it," Sora interrupted before they could get into _another_ argument. She banged on the door three times, before looking up and down the hallway, to be sure LadyDevimon hadn't appeared suddenly.

She didn't if you were wondering.

"Looks like no one is home," Otamamon said.

Again I rolled my eyes. I could hear footsteps, so _someone_ was home.

"Are you a stranger?" A voice called from the other side of the door.

"No," I called, fighting off a smile.

"I'm not allowed to let strangers in."

"I know," I told him.

"I know you then?"

"Yes Meiyomon," I said. "It's Koushiro."

"And Daisuke, Taichi, Otamamon, Sora and Hikari," Hikari added.

"Oh…Okay."

"Can you let us in," I asked.

"Smarter than me? Yeah right," Otamamon muttered.

"Of course I can. Should I though? Mrs. Hida said to keep the door closed. I have to abide by the rules and regulations that she provided for me. I don't want to be a bother to her. Although I must admit that acting the part of a child is quite entertaining."

I raised my eyebrow at Otamamon and he started mumbling under his breath.

"At first I _was_ a child, with the mindset of one, but I think I'm getting closer and closer to my digivolution with each day," Meiyomon said as he opened the door. He still looked the same: young, maybe seven or eight, with his ridiculous jester's hat and oversized shirt. His hands were barely peeking through the sleeves.

"So, what can I do for you?" he asked with a goofy child-like grin.

"I need a favour," I told him bluntly.

"Right," he said, looking to his feet. "Where are we going?"

"To camp."

"That's the most fun sounding favour ever! But will I be allowed…" he murmured.

"If you leave Mrs. Hida a note, it shouldn't be too bad," Hikari said softly.

"Alright," he said. "Could you write one for her?"

"He can't even write by himself," Otamamon announced, sounding incredibly jealous of Meiyomon while trying to prove himself to be better.

"My sleeves get in my way," Meiyomon told him kindly. I supposed he was too nice to realize Otamamon's negative intentions. "We can go faster if you write it, Koushiro!"

I sighed, but found a piece of paper and jotted down quickly:

_Mrs. Hida,_

_Meiyomon is doing a favour for me, it involves his home world, and I felt he should take part. I don't know how long it will take. Call if necessary._

_Koushiro_

I jotted down my cell phone's number, and declared it finished.

"Here's some tape," Meiyomon said, passing me a roll. "We'll just put it on the door."

"Where's Iori?" Daisuke asked Meiyomon as I taped the note to the door.

"He was going to meet with Jou," Meiyomon announced. "He thinks that Jou can help take care of the stalker girl. I don't know why he doesn't just let me blow her up. She wouldn't bother him anymore if he did."

"Blowing a person up is wrong," Hikari told him.

"That's what Mrs. Hida said too," Meiyomon said. "It was a shame, 'cause I almost had Iori convinced."

Sora and Hikari's eyes widened and that news, but otherwise it had no response. Taichi and Daisuke had taken to what appeared to be guarding Hikari from some unknown attack.

I took Meiyomon's hand, shook my head, and started off down the hallway toward the stairs.

"Why not the people lift?" Otamamon asked me. I raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"If we were being chased, all she would need to do is cut the power and then the elevator cable, and then we'd be dead," I told him.

His eyes got big and he shivered—and Sora sent me a dirty look. I shrugged and asked "Do any of you have a car?"

"No," was the response. Then I remembered that both Sora and Taichi came back home from school on a bus, Hikari's been too sick to bother with _getting_ a licence and Daisuke had a sister willing to drive him anywhere so long as he babysat that dim-witted digimon.

"Right," I said. "We'll have to borrow my mom's. Let's go!"

It took us much less time to get to the exit of the building than getting up—which based on physics was fairly obvious. It wasn't until we reached the second turn that things got complicated.

A shadow was cast on us from overhead. Against my better judgement, I looked up. It was LadyDevimon. It didn't look like she'd spotted us, and loads of people were screaming at the flying digimon above us. We didn't. So we didn't blend in.

Crap.

"Wow," Meiyomon said looking up at her, in a voice filled more with excitement rather than the fear we should have been portraying.

"There you are!" she screamed at us.

"Damn it!" Daisuke and Taichi swore.

"This is all your fault Koushiro," Daisuke continued.

"He didn't know," Hikari defended me. Her soft protest had both boys looking at me sheepishly, but crowding even closer to her.

"Okay, okay," Sora said under her breath. "What should we do?"

"Attack her before she gets us?" Meiyomon suggested.

"Yeah!" Otamamon shouted happily. "Wrapping Bubble!"

I was impressed by his bravery…

Until I found out that Wrapping Bubble is just dropping about a balloon sized drop of water on her head. All it succeeded in doing was make her angrier. And wet.

"I was thinking something along the lines of…BOOM!" Meiyomon announced, managing to cause an explosion to appear right before her face.

"Thank you Meiyomon," I said. "That was helpful."

"You don't need to be so mean," Sora told me looking pointedly at Otamamon.

"Yeah, thanks to you too," I said. But I didn't really mean it at all. Sora noticed. Hikari, Daisuke, Taichi and Meiyomon noticed. But Otamamon was grinning from ear to ear, well, ear-hole to ear-hole, as he didn't actually have ears.

"Let's skedaddle," Daisuke yelled, leading us under the awning of the nearest restaurant. We kept as close to the buildings as we could as we ran towards my house.

"Mom!" I shouted as I opened the door. The others were waiting outside, not wanting to be coerced into more snacks—to be honest, they did want snacks, but we had limited time and snacks did not fit into that schedule.

"Where's the fire?" she asked.

"I need the keys for your car," I told her. "It's a save-the-world thing."

She looked skeptical, but did hand me the keys.

"Be safe," she told me.

"As safe as possible," I promised her. "Keep inside. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I will," she called to me just as I was closing the door.

"Let's get to camp."

Twenty minutes later found us all crammed into my mom's car that seated just six. Otomamon was placed on Hikari's lap—who was sandwiched between the two guys—while Sora and Meiyomon shared the front with me.

"Where is this camp?" Meiyomon asked.

"Not far," I said, pointing to the entrance way. "Just over there."

"We're almost there then," he said in a satisfied way. I just nodded and put on the turn signal. We were met by the camp director.

"What are you kids doing here?" he demanded.

"We're not kids," I informed him. "And I am here to run a diagnostic scan on the area to determine the cause of the altered weather patterns. This is my team, along with Daisuke Motomiya, your employee if I have my facts in order, and I always do," I told him, cramming a whole lot of nonsense in my speech. After all, no one was _always_ right. I was just right a lot of the time. Most of the time... "He is the one who approached me about this phenomenon. If you would just allow me to get to the root of the problem, perhaps you will be able to reopen your camp next week. We don't want to stand in the way of business, do we?"

"No," he stammered. "O-of course n-not. Go right ahead."

"Thank you," I said.

"Wait, didn't you used to go to this camp?"

"You must have me confused with someone else," I said quickly, nearly ruining my haughty-yet-professional image. "Now, allowing me through?"

"Right," he said, moving out of the way of my car. First thing we did when we got out of the car, was to check if we were followed by the fallen angel digimon. We weren't.

"Let's go Meiyomon," I said. "I'm going to give you this key, and you try to open the gate, alright?"

"Sure," he said, accepting my copper key. Daisuke led us to the rift, which left Hikari, Sora and Taichi in awe. Meiyomon—who was able to produce data streams—was unimpressed, and Otamamon made a gargled noise.

Meiyomon walked up to the rift slowly, raising the key in his hand towards it. As soon as he got near it, it seemed to be working. He got the key stuck in the rift, but was unable to turn it even the slightest bit.

"It's not working," Meiyomon said. "Why isn't it working?"

"Hmm," I murmured. "I had supposed that you—a _crest_ digimon—would be able to get access. The crests are the link between our two worlds. But we had to give them up, so I was hoping that you—the next-best-thing—would be able to do what I couldn't."

"But it's your key," Hikari said quietly. "It found _you_. You'll have to do it. Not Meiyomon."

"But I've already said I couldn't," I informed her.

"What if you try together," Sora suggested. "The link and the key-holder."

"Maybe," I mumbled, going and trying to turn the key on my own. Just as I thought, it didn't budge.

"Maybe it wasn't your key?" Daisuke said. "I was there too I mean."

So he gave it a try. Only, when he got close to it, the rift shot lighting out at him. If it weren't for Meiyomon's quick actions, Daisuke would've been toast.

"A living organism isn't helping," I commented. "We need something digital, such as the digivices, or the crests themselves…"

"But we left them all in the digital world..." Sora reminded me.

"I have an idea," Hikari announced suddenly.

"Will it work?" I asked her.

"I think so!"

_**Jou:**_

"Iori this is quite honestly the grossest most awful idea you've ever had." I told him as the four of us walked along in the underground sewers.

"I agree that it's gross." Mimi said.

"Amen to that..." Yamato sighed.

"But at least we've escaped the creepy devil digimon who was about to kill us for no reason." Mimi explained, "I think Iori did a pretty good job there."

"Thank you Mimi." Iori smiled, sticking his tongue out playfully to me. I laughed at him.

After walking in silence through the muck around our feet, with only the slurping sounds of our footsteps echoing quietly around us, Yamato finally spoke, "So what was that?"

"What?" Mimi asked.

"You were talking about that key..." Yamato continued. "What was it?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea." Mimi said honestly, "All I know is that Koushiro seems to think that they're important. So whatever they are... we should get them somehow."

"I am not planning on ever going near that creature just to get a key from him." I insisted. "That's even worse than Iori's sewers plan..."

This time both of them stuck their tongue out at me.

"Whatever, we'll get it somehow I'm sure." Mimi said looking over her shoulder nervously.

"I'm fairly certain that he is not following us." I told her, "It is okay Mimi."

"I know... I just... I keep thinking I hear Sora's scream." Mimi said looking cautiously to Yamato. That's the last I heard of her. Her scream... I need to find her."

"No sign of her at all?" Yamato asked, a frown on his face.

Mimi shook her head. "I have no idea where she's gone to... but I know she's okay."

"How do you know?" Iori asked.

"I... well I—I just... I don't." Mimi admitted slowly. "I just hope she's okay."

"I think we all do." I said.

"I know I do." Yamato added.

There was another silence in which Iori sped up and then turned a corner in the sewers. "Just around the next corner. We'll get up and call Koushiro. Ask him what these keys are about, and tell him about the one we found."

"Good idea." Mimi smiled.

"How do you know your way around here?" I asked Iori. "You seem like you've been down here before..."

"Well..." Iori looked embarrassed, "I told you... Noriko doesn't leave me alone. Sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures."

I laughed at him again, "She really is persistent isn't she...?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Iori insisted. "I swear I'm going to explode at her one day and then she'll cry, I'll apologize, she'll take it as me confessing my love and then we'll end up with three kids! Kana—"

"That won't happen." Mimi said, "And that's a really pretty name! I hope you name one of your kids that."

"I plan to..." Iori said awkwardly as he pointed to an iron ladder. "This is the way up."

"I'll go first." Yamato said, hopping up to the ladder and climbing. Mimi motioned for me to go next, which was kind of disgusting because the goo from Yamato's shoes was coming off on the ladder and I put my hand in it a couple of times. Finally though Yamato helped me out of the sewers. I looked around, the sun seemed unusually bright, but that was because we had just walked through the dark underground. But when my eyes adjusted I saw that we were in the middle of an empty street.

"This really isn't safe Iori." I told him as Mimi and Yamato helped him up, "You shouldn't come up in the middle of a street. You could get run over..."

"I'm careful about it." Iori insisted. "I swear."

"If you say so..." I said, "You know—" A loud explosion cut me off, causing us all to look behind me and toward a green area, I knew it was some sort of park.

Mimi was already running toward the explosion and Yamato wasn't far behind. What had gotten into them? First they both willingly jumped into the sewers and then were both running _toward_ the ferocious explosive noises? I looked down at my feet and pulled my pant legs up. My legs were all gooey and red.

"I think I actually am allergic to sewer slime." I said to Iori. When he didn't respond I looked up and saw that he too was running after Mimi. I groaned and chased after them.

I found them all hiding behind a bush.

"What was it?" I asked a little too loudly.

Yamato spun around and grabbed my legs and pulled, causing me to fall onto the ground as Iori and Mimi shushed me. Mimi then pointed over the bush. I crawled forward and gasped. Marinedevimon was standing tall and proud in the middle of the park next to a flaming tree with people screaming and fleeing from him.

"We have to do something." I said flatly.

"We can't." Yamato pointed out, "What can we do to _that_? He's huge!"

"And besides, everyone seems to be safe so far." Mimi said as the three of them turned around and we huddled up.

"Where are they coming from?" Yamato asked. "That's two digimon—"

"Three." Mimi corrected.

"Sorry," Yamato said, "Three digimon so far... what's going on? How are they getting through?"

"If they can come here there's something wrong—something misplaced..." I said slowly, "I don't understand it exactly, but Koushiro tried to explain it to me when I asked him about Otamamon and Meiymon. He said that as long as there is no unbalance in the digital world then they shouldn't affect the balance here."

"So something from Earth is in the digital world?" Iori asked.

"Or someone..." Yamato added.

"I guess so..." I nodded. "We'll have to find out—those people are running _toward_ the digimon..."

"What?" The three of them gasped turning to face the scene again. There were three humans running directly toward Marinedevimon, who simply swiped his hand and sent the three of them flying back.

"Is that...?" Iori asked slowly.

"TAKERU!" Yamato yelled, jumping to his feet suddenly and rushing out of the bushes.

"It is!" Iori proclaimed.

"Miyako!" Mimi called, jumping to her feet, "Ken!" She hurried out after Yamato and Iori looked to me, scared and then followed. I sighed and stood up, a little scared to follow.

I heard footsteps behind me and screamed at the sight of Skullsatamon advancing on me. I didn't have time to figure out how he had found us again, how he had followed us when we'd been in the sewers of all places, instead I turned and ran immediately, too scared to face him and his weird freezing power. I heard Skullsatamon mumble something in his raspy voice under his breath and then the ground beneath me exploded and I flew through the air, landing roughly in the grass next to the burning tree.

"Jou!" Iori yelled out in fear, running toward me, leaving Yamato and Mimi to run to the others. I was very disoriented, so confused as to what had happened and how it had all managed to happen so fast. We were all surrounded by two crazy, angry fallen angel digimon who would kill us with pleasure and we had no digimon to help us out... and instead of running in terror, we were running straight toward them! And I somehow knew that it was the right choice. Running wasn't an option for me anymore. I was going to be a hero... "Jou are you okay?" Iori asked as he slid to a stop in front of me and helped me up from my tangled position in the grass. "Are you alright?"

"I think my shoulder wants to die." I said with a chuckle, rubbing my aching left shoulder "But yeah I'm okay."

"Don't laugh." Iori said flatly, "Please don't... I'm too scared."

"I was just trying to lighten the mood." I told him, "Don't be scared... we're going to be alright Iori, trust—"

"Jou we have to go!" Iori said quickly grabbing my arm and dragging me toward Yamato and the others. Mimi was standing near Miyako and Ken, while Yamato and Takeru were much further over.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked Miyako.

"We heard a loud explosion." She said, "Obviously we're going to follow it."

"Yeah Jou, keep up." Ken said.

"Oh of course, how silly of me..." I said sarcastically, but didn't say anything more, as we too followed the loud destructive sounding explosion.

Marinedevimon swatted Yamato and Takeru again, this time sending them both flying straight toward Mimi, Iori, Miyako, Ken and I, hitting us, and like bowling pins, we all fell.

"Get up!" Yamato yelled impatiently to Ken who had somehow landed on top of Yamato.

"I can't!" Ken said quickly. "I can't move—Miyako get off—"

"These are the digidestined?" Marinedevimon's low, relaxed voice swam through the air.

Skullsatamon laughed, making him sound like he was coughing up his lungs, "Kind of makes you wonder how they got this far, does it not?" Skullsatamon grunted in agreement.

Marinedevimon shrugged his shoulders slightly, "Either way. It doesn't matter. They will not make it any further now." He raised his hand. I tried to get up and move out of the way but I was on the bottom of the pile. "Do you digidestined have a key?"

I thought about lying to spare our lives for just a couple seconds more, but before I had the chance someone else spoke.

"Yes."

We all froze and turned our heads to the burning tree nearby. Sitting in the lowest branch, her black hair flowing in the wind was Kurayami. She leapt gracefully from the tree and landed smoothly. She walked across the grass toward the group of us as Miyako pulled herself from under Mimi and got off of Ken so Yamato could get off of Takeru and Iori. Soon we were all standing around Kurayami who was holding a long black key in her hand.

"I have one." She said. "And you can't have it."

The digimon laughed at one another, and then turned to Kurayami whose face was suddenly very pale and her oceanic eyes had glazed over and turned dark. We all looked to one another in confusion. What were we supposed to do? Did we let her look at them with those evil eyes? Was she communicating? Was she still evil or not?

Suddenly though, the two digimon seemed to be frozen, like Skullsatamon had done to us. Their shoulders weren't moving like they had been before with every breath, they were like cardboard cut outs of monsters from some horror movie. We all stared in confusion, looking between the digimon and Kurayami until colour flooded back into her skin and her eyes turned blue once more.

"Well then..." Mimi said slowly. "What... the heck?" Mimi voiced my thoughts, and by the look on everyone else's face they all thought the same thing.

"What did you do to them?" Miyako asked as she moved cautiously forward, toward Kurayami.

"I froze them." Kurayami said as if it were obvious, which it was. She spun the dark key around her finger and then tossed it into the air and caught the tip of it, holding it up so we could see it. "Any of you know what this is?"

"No." Mimi, Iori, Yamato and I said together.

"I do!" Takeru said. "I mean... we do." He motioned toward Ken and Miyako. "That's one of the keys that came out of that rift."

"What rift? What do you mean?" Kurayami asked loudly, her eyes darting back and forth between all of us. When her eyes landed on me I threw my hands up in surrender, I didn't know the answer any better than she seemed to.

"At the camp that we work at," Ken explained, "A strange rip appeared in the sky and Koushiro is pretty sure that the rift and the keys will bring us back to the digital world."

I saw Kurayami's lips twitch into a smile for a moment but then she settled with confused, just as I did. That was impossible. Gennai said that we couldn't go back. He had said that we couldn't go back. And I believed him. Without the digivices how were we supposed to get there even if the gate was opened?

"That's impossible." Kurayami said flatly.

"Maybe," Miyako agreed, "But we'll never know if we don't give him those keys to let him figure it out."

"So if he takes my key I might get to go back to the digital world?" Kurayami asked. There was a moment of silence where Miyako nodded slowly. "Okay. Where is he?"

"I'll text him." Mimi said quickly.

As Mimi fiddled around with her phone Miyako elbowed me lightly. "How's Momoe?"

I practically growled at her in response. I was sick of people bringing her up! So the last time we spoke was a giant argument and I hadn't been seeing her since! Why did they all have to remind me? "I HAVE NO CLUE!"

Miyako screamed at me loudly in response. No words, just angry sounds. The two of us burst out laughing after and everyone stared at us, eyebrows raised.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Takeru asked Yamato and Iori. I turned toward the digimon statues that stood side by side in the middle of the park. I could have sworn I saw one of their hands move, but realized it was likely just a trick of the light or something. I turned back to the group who was now standing in a circle while Mimi waited for Koushiro's response.

"What are you doing in Japan?" I asked Kurayami, trying to make conversation.

"I woke up this morning with a key laying next to me. A magical black key. I needed to know if you guys knew what it was." Kurayami said.

"This morning?" I asked slowly, "How did you get here so fast?"

Kurayami's eyes widened for a moment, and then she looked away from me and said loudly "Shut up."

I was kind of offended, I was just trying to be her friend and all she did was yell at me and be mad... how had Hikari and Daisuke managed to befriend her?

Mimi's phone beeped and she squeaked slightly turning toward me and saying "He's at the camp."

"Perfect!" Ken exclaimed, "Let's go!" Ken leapt into the air and punched the sky enthusiastically. So enthusiastically that he forgot to come back down. I tried to move but couldn't... and I suddenly knew what had happened.

I heard the hacking sounds of Skullsatamon's laugh, but I couldn't look toward him. I could see Mimi, who was still smiling that Koushiro had responded, and Kurayami's face was stuck in complete shock.

"Now, whatever the hell you just did to me Kura..." Skullsatamon said, "It made me... upset. Bo-"

"SNEAK ATTACK!" A loud familiar voice screamed.

"Michael it's not a sneak attack if you tell them what you're doing!" and suddenly I knew the first voice was Michael and the second was Willis.

After a loud thud and a gasp, I could move again, and I looked over to see Skullsatamon rubbing his head and Michael standing behind him with a baseball bat in hand.

"You know what Willis?" Michael said, "It worked."

A loud hiss came from next to me and I looked over at Kurayami whose hands were raised in the air. Her eyes were black once more, and her hair and cloak were blowing wildly in the wind.

The digimon's faces contorted and then they slowly turned on the spot and took long, slow steps, walking off.

I looked to Kurayami in fear as she concentrated on sending the digimon away, but then my attention was drawn to Mimi's squeal. "Michael! Willis!" She was hugging both of them tightly, squishing their faces together.

"It's great to see you too Mimi!" Willis said, his face turning red.

"LET GO." Michael ordered, swinging his bat around like mad.

"Oh!" Mimi released the two boys who were both met by the evilest of glares, both of which made me appreciate the kindness in the look Kurayami was still giving the digimon. Takeru looked like he was stabbing Willis in his imagination over and over, and Iori looked like he was about to insult Michael.

"You're stupid." Iori said to Michael.

"Iori!" Yamato said quickly as Kurayami's face was finally returning to her normal... angry scowl. "We don't have time to insult people"

"There is _always_ time for honesty." Iori said with a smirk.

Yamato, Ken, and Takeru all started laughing, but each stopped as Miyako glared at each of them.

"Yamato is right." Mimi said, "We need to get to camp."

"Is this really the time for camping?" Willis asked slowly.

"We need to find Koushiro." Mimi said. "He's getting us to the digital world."

_**Koushiro:**_

"Okay, so where would we find her?" I asked.

"Her and Daisuke call each other," Hikari supplied. "Why don't you call her?"

"I've tried," he said. "I can't get her to answer. I've already called her once today… She doesn't take more than that…"

"Oh no," Hikari said downcast.

"We still need to find the others," Sora said before Hikari was able to depress everyone too thoroughly. "Call whoever you can."

There was a frenzy as Taichi, Sora and Daisuke frantically grabbed their phones, dialling numbers. Sora, I supposed, was calling Yamato. Daisuke I hoped was trying for Kurayami again anyway. Taichi…well, I hadn't an inkling who he was attempting to contact. I knew that Takeru, Miyako and Ken did not have a phone with them to call. I knew Jou had one. Iori…I doubted. Mimi did though. She seemed to be angry with me however, so I didn't want to be the one to call her. I was about to call Jou though, when my phone went off, signalling a text message.

_Where r u?_

The grammar was so terrible I was tempted not to answer it.

But then I saw it was from Mimi. So I had to answer it.

_I'm at camp._

It wasn't until I sent that however, that I noticed two things. One: the others were staring at me, wondering who I got through to, and two: I had a terribly obvious smile on my face. In a way of saving what little dignity I still had, I quickly typed out another text.

_Where are the others? Can you come to camp?_

"Who is it?" Taichi asked with an annoying smirk on his face.

"One of the others," I said absentmindedly. "I'm seeing if I can locate the others."

"That's good!" Hikari said happily. Otamamon nodded along. I glared at him.

"So they're coming?" Sora asked.

"Well," I said, waiting for her reply. "I can't be sure…."

Suddenly my phone gave another 'ping!'

_Everyone's here. We're on our way._

Allowing myself a small smile, I looked to Sora, who'd looked to me enquiring the answer. "They're coming." Things were falling into place. They were finally looking up.

"And Kurayami is with them?" she clarified.

"Yes, I believe so," I repeated.

"Why didn't you ask if she was there?" Hikari asked—destroying my moment of utter calm.

"What do you mean?" Taichi asked.

"The plan, as it is, has them coming all the way to the camp, and then going back to get Kurayami," Hikari explained. "We could have eliminated a step."

"Why didn't _you_ think of that, Koushiro?" Otamamon asked in his annoying little voice that grated on my nerves.

"Well, Mimi said _everyone_ was with her, and Mimi's too nice to simply exclude Kurayami even if she's never had a conversation with her," I said just a tad defensively. I wasn't perfect. Why did they insist on believing I was?

"And if she does?" Daisuke asked.

"Then they'll have to go back. It's terrible in that LadyDevimon has a better chance of following them a second time, but only a few people would have to go back—a driver, and whoever Kurayami trusts, aside from Hikari. She _is_ sick, and due to that she isn't fast enough to be necessary on that trip."

"So it would be a lesser target if it were necessary," Hikari conceded. "But it doesn't mean she won't be with the others. We should think positively."

"Right," I said. "Everything will work out fine."

"You overlooked something already…" Daisuke commented. Much to my displeasure, Otamamon shook his head frantically in agreement.

"And just how often is he wrong?" Sora asked with sass. I had never been all that appreciative of her before then, but I was going to have to start.

"Well, I think we should think of a new plan," Daisuke said.

"Why?" Hikari asked.

"Because I'm the leader," he said crossing his arms. "And there are too many flaws to his plan."

"I think I'm the leader actually," Taichi said. "And there are flaws. But way fewer than if you were to come up with anything."

"I'm pretty smart you know," Daisuke said.

I rolled my eyes, but did not comment.

"Yeah, well I beg to differ," Taichi announced. It seemed he had no qualms with voicing my unsaid observation.

"Yeah," Sora interrupted. "Well I'm Taisuke right now." She pointed to her head, where the iconic goggles were displayed proudly. "So I say we just listen to Koushiro."

"Taisuke?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "_I_ have the goggles and that makes _me_ the leader. What I say goes."

Taichi and Daisuke glared at her before crossing their arms and looking away stubbornly. I did not care enough to ask why Sora had the goggles. I was still too appreciative of her support to bother risking it.

"They'll be here soon," I commented, after reading another text. "No one is following them."

"That's good," Sora said. "I wonder how they'll get passed the supervisor. He barely let us through…"

"I could go and take care of him," Meiyomon suggested. "Since there would be no residue, they would not be able to trace it back to me."

"You're not blowing him up!" Sora and I commanded.

"It was just a suggestion," Meiyomon grumbled. "If he follows them and gets hurt it's all your fault."

"Yeah, because getting blown up won't hurt at all," Sora said sarcastically.

"Oh, I hope he doesn't get hurt," Hikari commented. "I'd hate to see him get hit by that strange lightning."

"I could get him with _my_ attack," Otamamon said.

I snorted. "Getting him wet will only make his death more sure and painful."

"I'm only trying to help," he said.

"Well, don't," I said. He glared at me, and I'll admit to being petty enough to glare back at him. I had issues connecting with people. I'd be the first to admit to that. But I _could_ do it with my friends. We were friends, despite us being so different. Mimi was my _opposite_, and we still got along. But Otamamon managed to rub me the exact wrong way. Mimi liked shopping, I didn't, but if technology was involved, I could be swayed. It's all about compromise. Otamamon didn't dislike anything—except me. We clashed _that_ badly. There was no compromise on his end. He thought he was the cutest and smartest thing in the world, and thrived on the support and compliments he was able to get from the others. But he wasn't a genius. He wasn't even a little bit smart. He was a moron, and I was the _only_ one that didn't bother to hide it from him. He wasn't that cute either….

"Alright," Sora said, trying to diffuse the tension forming between us. "They'll get in on their own."

"Of course we will," a bright, heart-warming voice called. It was Mimi. They made it!

"I'm such a great actor and all," Michael said with a cheesy grin, holding a baseball bat. His blonde hair looked suspiciously silky and was blowing dramatically in the wind. In short, he irked me. Well, the fact that he was there and I had not thought he would bothered me more. "it wasn't all that bad... getting past that old man and all, I mean."

Jou looked tired, and frazzled, as though running from killer digimon wasn't his idea of fun. Iori stood with a resigned look on his face. He was ready for a fight if a Digimon came out of nowhere, clutching his metal rod firmly. Mimi was in the front, looking dishevelled, and looked suspiciously as though she'd been playing in the sewers…. Kurayami was beside her, looking all the world like a demon child—especially in comparison to Mimi's carefree happiness. Her dark hair was in disarray and she was not smiling…in short, she was just like I remembered her. Miyako and Ken were holding hands, glad to finally be back at camp. Yamato in his standard leather jacket—did he go anywhere without that?—was right behind them, with Takeru stuck by his side. Takeru's eyes seemed to light up when he saw Hikari…but not as much as hers did when she saw Willis.

"Willis!" she shrieked happily. She ran—as fast as she was able being sick—at him and threw herself into his arms.

Mimi made eye contact with me, but suddenly two people appeared in between us, embracing each other firmly. Sora and Yamato said nothing for a moment until Yamato finally spoke, "Sora I was looking everywhere for you!"

"Literally everywhere..." Iori confirmed, and Jou nodded sharply.

"Scared?" Sora asked with a grin, "I am Sora. I can take care of a couple little digimon."

"Wanna bet?" Meiyomon grinned sheepishly as Sora and Yamato were pried apart by Mimi who tackled Sora into a hug with so much enthusiasm that she almost dragged her to the ground. After Mimi had pushed Yamato back he was caught by Taichi and the two exchanged quick grins and nods. It seemed peculiar to me that the two of them would say nothing to each other having been best friends for as long as I could remember. I noticed Takeru trying to get Hikari's attention and Daisuke smile at Kurayami who, although she tried to hide it, smiled back for a fraction of a second.

"You're here!" Hikari cheered into Willis' shoulder, "I thought I'd miss you, being in the Digital World and all."

"Yeah, what is that about?" he asked. "That's the second time I've heard it, but I don't know if I can believe it."

"No one seems to be able to grasp it," I muttered. "It's not that hard of a concept."

"Koushiro," Mimi said gently, as if talking to a child and it annoyed me. "Not everyone is as smart as you. And Gennai told us we wouldn't be going back."

"Who said the exact same thing when we first left the Digital World when the two of us were ten years old?" I asked her.

"Gennai," she admitted. "But he was so old back then."

"He was smarter back then," I said a bit snarky. I was getting sick of people questioning my reasoning. Mimi's questions didn't usually bother me—mostly because she was never questioning _me_ just picking my brain—but these were grating on my last nerve. I suppose taking it out on her wasn't very kind of me, since Otamamon was the one that deserved it. Stupid tadpole.

"Well, how are we getting in?" Takeru asked, brightening my mood instantly. He was happy with my discovery, rather than being rude about it.

"At first, I thought the key could be enough," I said. "But it wasn't. Then I thought I needed something from the Digital World to trigger it, so I went to get Meiyomon."

"Even though he already had me," Otamamon added. I glared at him, but ignored his comment.

"But even that didn't help, despite Meiyomon being created by the crest of honour, one of the sixteen ties between Earth and the Digital World," I continued.

"So, I thought," Hikari interrupted. I allowed her to take over. "What about the actual crests?"

"We gave those up," Daisuke said, still sure that our plan was stupid.

There was an awkward silence. Half of us stared at him simply as an insult to his intelligence. The rest probably were ashamed to believe him.

"Except for me," Kurayami spoke up. As one all eyes were on her. She really did look a little scary.

"Exactly," Hikari said smiling. "So you should be able to help."

"I can try," she allowed. When she made no further movement, there was another awkward pause.

"You have it with you right?" Hikari asked suddenly nervous.

"Oh, yes," Kurayami said. "I didn't know you meant now."

"She did," I said, gesturing to the rift that was still holding fast to my key, and emitting sparks of electricity every now and then.

Kuryami did nothing more than nod, before pulling her crest out of her pocket with her cell phone. She'd been using it as a keychain. She took the simple black crest off of the phone, and slowly stepped towards the key. When she got close, the rift sparked, but didn't shoot out towards her, so I took that as a good sign. She stretched her arm out, holding the crest in front of her, as far out as she could reach. It seemed she didn't want to get too close. The real surprise however was what happened when she came in contact with the rift. The tear in that had previously been floating in the sky, had become a door in a simple flash of light. A door with a key stuck in the keyhole.

"Try it now," she commanded me, seeming to know who the key belonged to.

I nodded, and slid my fingers around the key. It turned without much effort. And when the door opened, I gasped. It was clearly the Digital World on the other side. I looked to the others quickly, happy to see the disbelief turn to shock.

"Let's go!" Takeru exclaimed.

"No," I said. "We can't rush into it."

"Why not?" Daisuke asked excitedly as Kurayami backed away from the door and rested by his side.

"We can't leave Earth with three digimon," Yamato said logically.

"So you stay to take care of them," Takeru said. "I want to go."

"I know you do," Sora said, "but we can go in teams, can't we?"

"I can lead them in," Taichi suggested.

"I'll decide who leads them," she said, pointing to the goggles. But she couldn't come up with a better option, as she just let him do it.

"I'm going in," Takeru said, quickly gluing himself to Taichi's side, Yamato rolled his eyes at his brother but said nothing of it.

"I'll stay," I said though I didn't particularly _want_ to. "Someone needs to keep the gate open, and it's my key. So I'll do it."

"I want to go in," Mimi said. I frowned, but didn't say anything.

"Well, you'll need someone ready to fight in there!" Michael joked, patting his bat. This only seemed to solidify Iori's resolve.

"I'm staying then," he said. I may have imagined his grip on that pipe getting tighter…but it doesn't seem likely.

"Wherever Hikari goes I go," Daisuke said.

"Me too," Willis said smiling at her.

"She's staying here," Taichi said.

"I want to go," she contradicted him.

"But you're sick," he pointed out.

"That's why I need to go," she said. "I just need to. Don't try and stop me."

"But," he tried.

"No," she said. "You and Daisuke and Willis _and_ Takeru will be there, I'll be fine."

"And me," Kurayami said. "It was my crest, I'm going too."

"I'll stay," Sora said, grabbing Yamato's hand, silently conveying how glad she was that he was okay.

Ken and Miyako looked at each other and nodded. "Us too."

"I have to make sure…" Jou was saying. "I'm staying." With a strange, knowing look from Mimi, he nodded and stepped back.

"I'll go in to help keep everyone safe," Meiyomon said. "Maybe I'll get to blow stuff up in the Digital World…."

"Right," I said. "We have no idea how long this will stay open, but clearly something is wrong inside there, or they wouldn't have sent the keys, and there would not have been digimon rampaging through Odaiba."

"Bye guys," Sora said with a smile. "As your leader I'm trusting you to take care of each other. Hikari, keep them in line."

"I will," she said with a small giggle at the boys' affronted look.

Yamato was engulfed in a hug from his little brother, and Iori was suddenly wrapped in Hikari's arms—much to his dismay. Daisuke and Ken were shaking hands, before they gave up the pretense, and Mimi was suddenly hugging me. I didn't hug her back—even though I thought I might possibly want to… She did smell like the sewers, so I thought I was right on that front however.

"Take care of yourself," I murmured into her hair, hoping I didn't get whatever was coating it in my mouth. "Be careful."

"You too," she whispered back.

And just like that, they were gone.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **WOO! They've gone in! Next chapter is Taichi, let's see what's going on inside the Digital World!


	10. The Digital Ocean?

**Y/N: **This is actually me this time…I'm not asleep. And I'm thrilled to give you the next chapter so quickly, as opposed to many weeks and or months from now. I am really sorry about that wait. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I thank everyone who read and reviewed it. I really appreciate it.

**U/N: **Uhm... we're going to be doing little blurbs at the end of most chapters now to show what's going on with all of the minor characters. because... everything will come together at the end. So just... go with it ;) Also I like this, it's very... unusual, probably not what you were expecting or hoping for, but it's just our way of linking the last story with this one... Sooo... enjoy it i suppose? REVIEW ALSO! OR like... else.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

** Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 10: The Digital Ocean?**

_**Taichi**_**:**

It wasn't what I expected.

I was expecting a Digital World at peace with itself for once, where our digimon partners were succeeding where no one else ever had, and everything was finally the way it was supposed to. I suppose I was expecting a little bit too much. Perfection never happens, but I thought maybe it would be close, you know? But it wasn't.

Everything was bleak and boring. It wasn't just figurative either; the colours all seemed to be dulled. It wasn't black and white, which was good, because the Digital World was supposed to be stimulating and full of lush flora and fauna—according to Koushiro anyway. Instead it was like walking into an old movie, when the cameras weren't as good as the present day ones, and the colours had faded even more over each watching. You could still tell that the tree was green and brown, but it wasn't a healthy look overall.

I was scared for the Digital World. If that was what complete peace looked like, I didn't want any part of it.

"What happened?" Mimi asked sounding just as depressed as the Digital World looked. Meiyomon was nervously clinging to her legs as if something awful was about to happen.

"I don't know," I murmured. "It looks horrible."

We walked a few minutes through the trees along the forest path. The ground crunched under our feet. I was glad that _that_ was still normal at least.

"Do you know where we are?" Takeru asked. "The trees could be from anywhere, but I know there weren't any near Yokomon's village. And I was _sure_ that was supposed to be at the base of Meramon's mountain, not on the side."

"Maybe they moved it," Daisuke suggested. "Whatever is making this place so…depressing…might've scared 'em. They probably wanted to be closer to a stronger digimon."

"Maybe," Takeru said looking for all the world like he didn't believe it.

"Wasn't the Yokomon village in the middle of a dessert though?" Mimi asked. "Near a big canyon with an abandoned ship, not in the middle of a forest."

"It was," I remembered.

"But the Digital World has been reset since then," Hikari reminded us. "Maybe it was put in a different spot than you remember."

"That's true," Takeru allowed. "But it doesn't seem right."

"It looks kind of odd," Mimi admitted. "And not very safe."

It did look rather precarious, as though it might slip off the mountain at any moment with the angle the houses were placed at. And weren't Yokomon rather round digimon?

The solidity of the ground gave way under our feet, and the crunching went with it.

"What?" I asked, looking down at my feet only to find grey sand.

"Oh no," Hikari said, wrapping her arms tightly around her torso. Seeing her so lost and vulnerable, I moved inconspicuously closer to her, only to find Daisuke was already there, ready to put his arm around her without a second thought. I watched from afar, disappointed that Daisuke was always one step ahead of me. It was as if by going to further my education, I had to give up my place as Hikari's big brother. And by leaving I let Daisuke slip right into my place. I hated it. The useless feeling I got when Hikari needed comfort and found it in someone else—not a boyfriend though, just someone she seems to refer to as a brother. Even though he isn't her brother.

I had to take a deep breath before my growing anger got the best of me.

"What's wrong Hikari?" Willis asked.

"It's all wrong," Hikari said. "It's not supposed to be like this. I wasn't supposed to see this again."

"The sand?" Michael asked. "Everyone can see that."

"It's not just me?" she asked, sounding very much relieved.

"No," Kurayami said. "Why it's here I don't know, but it's here, and it _is_ what you think it is. I've seen it enough to know."

"So it is the Dark Ocean's sand?" Takeru asked, torn between fear and anger at Willis and Daisuke for being so close to Hikari. I didn't know how I was supposed to feel about that. My little sister having at least two—since I was sure Daisuke was satisfied with replacing me rather than trying for her affections—guys fighting over her. I was glad that the lucky guy wouldn't be Daisuke, despite what I'd thought in the past. I didn't want to be his brother-in-law anymore. He was dumb enough to think he was the leader _and_ Hikari's brother…did he think he was? Me?

"Yes," Kurayami said. "It shouldn't be here though. It should be in the Dark Ocean."

The Dark Ocean? What was it doing in the Digital World? Weren't they supposed to be like two separate worlds or whatever?

"Something is definitely not right," Daisuke said.

"Right," Mimi said. "So we should stick pretty close together, right? So that we don't get attacked or hit by some sort of digimon or something." Okay, so it was a little vague, but it was totally accurate.

"Let's just keep going," Kurayami said somewhat bluntly, taking off at a fast pace, causing the rest of us to start running to keep up. "We aren't in any immediate danger in any case. I've yet to even hear a digimon in these woods."

"They're not all gone again are they?" Hikari asked a little panicked.

"I doubt it," I said—though I had no reason to back up my claim—to ease her mind. "I don't really remember meeting all that many digimon the first time around while travelling. Usually they had some sort of permanent residence. They aren't visitors here. We are."

And to top it all off, my speech made sense. Enough sense that Takeru and Mimi were giving me impressed looks—though that was a little off-putting. It wasn't as if I was stupid or something. I was going through school courses that Yamato picked out for me. We were mad at each other at the time we picked them. Apparently having his best-friend dating the girl he'd secretly been in love with made Yamato choose a lot of boring sounding political sciences and law. In short they all sounded boring as all hell, but he ended up with whatever science courses I could cram into his schedule, with a major in astronomy, so I couldn't be too picky. Though to be fair, learning science sounded a lot more interesting than my choices. But we had to pick based on each other's strengths—well, enough that we could get accepted into the programs that we'd been assigned of course.

In short, I'm not stupid, so their looks that made me seem that way upset me, but I was still thrilled by the fact that my first speech outside of the surprisingly interesting debate thing Yamato set me up with was successful.

"Thanks Taichi," Hikari said sounding relieved. That made the speech even more successful. The look in her eye when she said it, made me feel like she still depended on me instead of Daisuke for something.

"It's not an actually secured point," Meiyomon said. "But your original statement was untrue anyway. You _have_ seen a digimon. Me."

"Sorry Meiyomon," Hikari said. "I didn't mean for you to feel insulted."

"I was just trying to make you feel better," he said softly. "I don't like it when girls get panicky. Mrs Hida did that a lot when Iori went out without giving her all sorts of information—who he was going with? What he was doing? When he'd be back? Where he was going? Did he need her to pick him up later?—lots of stuff. It was weird, because she never did the same to me. I guess being able to explode anything that might threaten me dissuaded any fear she might have. She thought Iori was safe with me anyway. I don't know why. I could'a blown him up any time I felt like it."

"It's okay buddy," I said. "Most guys feel that way about girls and tears and fears."

"Oh good," he said happily. "My transition into a human boy was correct then. Too bad it is now useless as we're back in my home world…"

"Yeah," Michael said. "I just remembered you can do those stupid wind tunnels…um…Data Streams…couldn't you do that so we could get a better view?"

"I doubt it," Meiyomon said. "I'm just a rookie now and all."

"Damn," Michael said. "I was hoping to survey this place quickly."

All the while, we continued walking, watching as the ground changed from sand to the forest floor again and again. It wasn't until we reached a point where the trees gave way to a beach that we stopped again. It wasn't a lake—well, it looked like one. It was surrounded on all sides by the grey sand, and the water itself varied from dark shades of grey to the darkest of blacks in the centre.

"Damn," I muttered. I had hoped the sand would be the only thing—other than the dull colour scheme the Digital World seemed to have adopted—that would remind Hikari of the Dark Ocean. But part of the 'Dark Lake'? Could there be anything more obvious?

"It is here," I heard my sister whisper. Willis took her hand and rubbed circles on the back of it. I, strangely enough was _not_ annoyed by that. I chalked it up to Willis clearly not wanting to take over my role, and let it go. The Dark Lake was a more pressing matter at the moment.

"Seems like it," Kurayami agreed. "Why though?"

There was a rustling in the bushes behind us. The dulled light the sun seemed to be giving off cast shadows with the help of the trees, and I was unable to see anything at all to indicate whether it was friend or foe.

There was a rush of actions, causing us to move about in a panic. I caught Hikari's arm, and tucked her behind me. I was glad for Willis at that moment, because he stayed behind her, clearly understanding her aversion to the lake and her desire to be away from it. Takeru was closer to her side, just behind my right shoulder. I was actually a little relieved that my little sister was the most protected out of all of us, despite the fact that I was not happy with the situation in the first place.

Mimi was to my left, and seemed to be clutching tightly to Michael's back, hiding as best she could whilst impersonating a backpack.

"Mimi," he gasped as she cut off his air flow. He took in as deep of breaths as he could manage before gagging. "Let go, you smell terrible."

"You sure know how to charm a girl," she said sarcastically muttering something about things not working with Tatum for a reason under her breath. She glared at him, but let go. She stayed behind him though. He raised his bat for protection.

Daisuke, I was surprised—pleasantly actually—to find was aiming to protect Kurayami, rather than my sister. If it wasn't such a dire situation, with a possible attacker and all, I might have chuckled when Kurayami, instead of letting him cover her, pushed him behind her, determined to protect him.

Meiyomon was prepared to explode that bush, I could see it in his eyes.

And it's a good thing that the intruder came out of the bushes when he did, or he would have been blown to smithereens.

"Gennai?" Mimi and I gasped at the same time. The others seemed too shocked to speak.

"Yes," he said, though he lacked the jovial tone he used to use with us. He seemed kind of disappointed…no…angered that he found us. "I simply had to follow the scent of sewage."

"You try going down in the sewers to escape your impending death, I'm sure you'd smell like daisies too," Mimi bit at him sarcastically. She was not pleased by her new perfume, and I saw the potential for many jokes in the future…you know, when Gennai wasn't furious with us for some unknown reason.

"Why are you here?" he asked us, no. _Demanded_ of us.

"Because we were sent for," I said, when it was clear no one else wanted to talk.

"You were not," he said firmly, exuding power.

"We were," I argued. "The Digital World sent us the means to get here. We were called here."

"Not intentionally," he said dismissing the matter.

"It's a good thing we were," Daisuke said finally finding his voice. "This world looks like crap. You said it was supposed to stay perfect when we left. It's about as far from it as you can get."

"It was meant to," Gennai said simply. "But an unforeseen event has caused there a rift to occur."

"The one we found on Earth?" Hikari asked.

"No," he said, looking for all the world like he still didn't want to believe there was a reason we were here. "This is a catastrophe that we are trying to eliminate with little success. I'm not entirely positive what rift you speak of child, but whatever the case I'm sure you should have ignored it. Breaking into the digital world is not usually taken lightly."

"We didn't break in," Takeru shouted at him. "We didn't stop until we got in, but we didn't break in, we were provided with everything we needed. It was just like being given Digivices."

"Those are safely locked away at the temple," Gennai commented. "But I have little time for this now. The Dark Ocean and the Digital World have been slowly fusing into one world. As far as we can tell, three years ago, the doors connecting the two worlds were left open, allowing those imprisoned in the Dark Ocean to escape, and taint the Digital World, turning it into what you see today."

"Who's the idiot that left the door open?" Kurayami demanded angrily.

It sounded oddly familiar to me. Something about a door left open, a black door and a white one. Being chased…trying to protect my sister from the Dark Ocean.

"_Hikari..." The low voice of Dragomon said from just outside the cave. "Don't go—"_

"_Taichi the door." She said quickly._

"_No time." I said, "Come on." I grabbed her arm and pulled._

"_It has to be closed!" She yelled._

"_Hikari just come!" I continued pulling her toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly explosions occurred all throughout the cave, the walls were opening up and a strange black goop was pouring out into the cave. _

_We kept running until we reached the door and I tried to open it. "It won't work!" I cried, "it's locked!"_

_She shoved me out of the way and grabbed the large golden door handle and pulled. The door swung open easily. So it was only her who could open this door? Which means that last door really was opened by Kurayami... in which case she was stuck in this cave._

_I pulled Hikari through the door and started to close it._

"_Don't!" She yelled, "Leave it open!"_

"_But you wanted the last door closed so badly..." I said._

"_Leave it." She said._

Oh God.

"It was us," I whispered. I looked to Hikari, and found her with tears welling in her eyes. She felt so guilty. She was taking the responsibility of all of this onto her shoulders.

"Oh no," she whimpered.

"You idiots!" Kurayami shouted. "You absolute imbeciles. You have destroyed the very foundation of both the Dark Ocean and the Digital World!"

"It's not just our fault," I said, though I had no reason to believe it wasn't. I was just being stubborn.

"It _is_ our fault, Taichi," Hikari said softly. "But it's Kurayami's fault too. She left her door open. I was the only one that could open the second door, but _she_ was in control of the first one. We couldn't have closed it if we tried."

"You're blaming me?" Kurayami asked rather affronted.

"I'm saying we—you and I—share the blame in this. I only left mine open so you could escape too," Hikari admitted.

"I had other means of escape," Kurayami said dismissing her kindness.

"I didn't know that though," Hikari insisted.

"It doesn't matter how kind or accidental it was," Gennai said. "The fact remains that the Digital World is in turmoil, with war raging through it. My people aren't going to hold them off much longer, if we don't get the doors closed. And I'm no help being here trying to convince you to leave."

"We can help," I insisted. The others nodded. Meiyomon looked especially thrilled to be able to help with a war.

"No. You're very presence will most undoubtedly cause the Earth to fuse into this corrupted Digital World as well. The worlds must be kept separate, parallel. Surely you know this."

We might have heard it once or twice, but we weren't about to tell him that.

"We're not leaving yet," I announced, and the glare he gave me only made me smile at him. "The Digital World wants us here, and who are _you_ to keep the Digital World from what it wants?"

**Yuuko:**

I watched Susumu scoop the remaining bags of groceries into his arms and then we headed toward the door to our apartment. I was worried about Hikari as I often was. She was sick, and I was her mother, could anyone really blame me for wondering if my daughter was okay?

I looked into the bag of groceries in my arm and began planning what kind of vegetables I'd be putting into a cake for dessert.

"Honey," Susumu warned with a simple word, I looked up and instantly saw what he was worried about. The door to the apartment was open. I shook it off by simply assuming that Taichi had left the door open once again, as he often did during the summer. But when I stepped in through the open doorway I noticed that the refrigerator door was open, and the house was a mess. I set the groceries on the counter and moved quickly toward Hikari's bedroom. I knocked briefly before opening the door.

"Hikari?" I asked, looking toward the messy bed. "Hikari?" I asked again as I stepped toward the bed, my heart beating quickly. I gently grabbed the blankets and pulled them away, she was gone. I turned toward her computer which was turned off, but her chair was out of place. I cautiously stepped out of the room and pulled the door closed before stepping toward the boys room. "Taichi?" I called before pushing the partially opened door open even further. The first thing I saw was a large scratch mark across the wall, but I soon felt a breeze, and turned sharply toward the window which was shattered and shards of grass were scattered across the floor, the curtains were blowing into the room.

"Yuuko!" Susumu called, "Come here quick!" My heart beating quickly I hurried toward my husband who was looking at a piece of paper that looked like it had been crumpled up. "Dear Mom, Dad, and/or Willis," Susumu read clearly, "I have gone to Koushiro's house. I will be back. I would tell my brother(s) where I was going if only they weren't trying to rip each other's heads off. Okay I love you all! Be back soon!" he paused for a moment and then said "I think!"

I looked at him, worried, and then we both nodded at each other. We had to go to Koushiro's house. Just to be sure they were all okay.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Hikari is next, we'll get to learn more about this strange new Digital World and the group of brave digidestined bound to explore it!


	11. 24 Hours

**Y/N: **I get to be Yoshie Izumi in the blurb this time. I was excited, and nervous, to be an adult this time, rather than one of the kids. I hope you enjoy it! And thank you for all the reviews, they mean a lot.

**U/N:** I had a lot of trouble getting into character here... like a lot. And i failed miserably... and the pacing is awful... not a well written chapter in my own opinion. But i hope you like it, not much really happens, but at the same time, a lot does... it was hard to get all this information in there while still working on the character development that we have planned...GAH it was just so hard... so yeah. Enjoy it... please? Also Review. That'd be cool...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

** Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 11: 24 hours**

_**Hikari:**_

I was staring at the sky in almost a state of shock. I couldn't understand... the sky was supposed to be bright and blue, it was supposed to brighten up the digital world, but all because of a simple act of kindness I had changed the sky to a slate grey and dark clouds were drifting up above. The sun was even put out, it was just an orb in the sky with very little light coming emanating from it. I guess what they say is true. No good deed goes unpunished. The trees were tall and surrounding us, we were in some sort of clearing though with the dark ocean behind us and a thin layer of grey sand under our feet, with bits of grass poking through. I almost wanted to leave, but I knew there was a reason we were here and it needed to be fixed.

"I will give you precisely twenty four hours," Gennai said in his clear, crisp voice, "And after that you are to leave this world once more and never come back." I looked over my shoulder, and only saw Willis standing there. He smiled at me, but I didn't smile back. I was so happy to see him, but I couldn't help feeling scared with a fraction of the Dark Ocean just right behind me. What if those Divermon were in there? Or worse, what if Dragomon was? I looked back to Gennai who was staring right at me, his brows furrowed.

"How are we supposed to save the world in one day?" Daisuke growled at Gennai, unaware that he was speaking to a superior being, or so it seemed.

"You will save the world by leaving." Gennai explained, finally turning his attention away from me, and snapping his head toward Daisuke, "No human's are allowed in this world. The balance is off-putting."

"But apparently it's okay if digimon are in the human world." Mimi said sarcastically, motioning toward Meiyomon who smiled and waved.

"This digimon child was in the human world?" Gennai asked.

"Yes," Daisuke said, "Along with Otamamon, Ladydevimon, Marinedevimon, and Skullsatamon." Daisuke was giving Gennai a glare that I could only describe as pure anger. I had only seen it once, and that was when my mother had tried to sneak brussel sprouts into the noodles he was cooking for our supper. He was very touchy about the noodles... and very serious about his little noodle cart.

"Well that was just a mistake." Gennai said, breaking all eye contact with us. It made me feel accomplished that we had shaken him, caught him off guard and even confused him. He seemed to be all powerful and completely unbreakable, but apparently not...

"A mistake that should matter." Taichi said, "Look, you're not the Digital World's bodyguard. If anyone were to be such a ridiculous thing, it would be us. The Digi-destined. We've saved the world more times than Daisuke can count, and it called to us to do it again."

"Taichi's right!" Takeru said with a grin. "The world called to us for the fourth time now. We're meant to be here! And I don't care what you say, or how much danger the world is in. I'm ecstatic to be back and to see my friends! We're going to save the world."

"Then do it elsewhere. No humans are permitted to enter the digital world." Gennai repeated, "It would upset the balance." I saw Daisuke give Kurayami a look filled with fear as she avoided everyone's eye contact.

As the others started to argue with his ridiculous arguments I squeezed through my prison made of humans and began walking off by myself, toward the trees which were actually incredibly dark and scary.

"Hikari!" I heard Takeru, Daisuke and Taichi scream.

"Where are you going?" Willis asked calmly from behind me.

I turned around and looked at them all. "Gennai said we have one day. So I'm going to use that day, and I'm going to go find Gatomon."

There was silence in the group as they all looked off into the trees longingly.

"Shouldn't we get the others though?" Michael asked. "Wouldn't they want to find their digimon too?"

"What?" Gennai asked sharply, "Others? There are enough of you in here as it is. I do not want you starting a whole civilization here!"

Taichi and Daisuke were suddenly at my side, trying to help me walk so I rolled my eyes as we all walked into the trees, obeying Gennai, and yet ignoring him, trying to get away. My arms were around the two boys necks, and they wouldn't let me pull them free.

"Guys, I think I can walk on my own." I told them with a confident grin. "I'm feeling better."

"You're not feeling better Hikari... there's no way." Taichi said, "You've been sick for like three years now..."

"I was sick because I couldn't get into the digital world!" I said calmly, "I'm sure of it. This place is what made me better the first time, and then when we were shut out again I felt sick again. The digital world should make me better again." I told them. I had to admit I was ready to explode at any second. And I didn't have to wait long...

The boys slowly released me and I stood freely for a minute before taking my first step. I was filled with energy already that I had forgotten had existed. I was breathing normally, unfortunately the air was bitter and dry, but at least I could breathe again. And even better, I felt calm. Perfectly, serene and calm.

And then I tripped on a root from a nearby tree that was protruding from the sandy ground.

Before I had time to even register that I had fallen Taichi, Daisuke, and Takeru were surrounding me, clawing at my arms trying to help me up.

"GO AWAY!" I screamed, finally exploding at them. "I _literally_ just tripped over a root! If Mimi fell right now would you all run to her side? No! Leave me alone! Let me get the hang of walking again! I need space! I need to breathe! I need time away from you all!" I pulled myself to my feet and looked around at all of the boys surrounding me. They all looked so sad and each of them seemed to be apologizing with their eyes. "I'm sorry..." I told them slowly.

"You don't know what you're saying," Daisuke said.

"Yeah," Taichi agreed, "Come on Hikari, let me help you,"

"Taichi, _please_!" I tried, but before I could persist any further, I was being pulled away from the boys by a firm grip. I looked up and smiled at Michael. Mimi jumped in front of the boys and growled.

"Willis, Takeru, Daisuke, and Taichi. Stay over here. Michael, Kurayami and myself will be the new guards of Hikari. Give the girl some space!"

I started laughing as Michael set me back on my feet and high fived Mimi. Takeru, Daisuke and Taichi looked like their entire worlds had just come crashing down, but Willis was just standing behind them with a giant grin on his face, clearly finding this just as amusing as I found it. I smiled at him and he winked at me. I felt myself blushing so I turned away quickly. And smiled at Michael and Kurayami.

"Wait!" A voice called from behind us. "I'm coming with you." Gennai burst through the trees and onto the path. "You're not supposed to be here, but if you get hurt here then it'll be harder for you to leave."

"Thank... you?" Michael tried, the rest of us stayed silent and kept walking. I felt like the weight of the world was off of my shoulders. I was walking by myself, no one was clinging to me, hoping that I didn't die. Of course, I still felt a little sick, and I could have possibly fainted at any moment, but I didn't even care. Walking alone was wonderful, and even better... I was going to see Gatomon. And no matter how awful this world had become, mixing with the dark ocean, nothing could stop my excitement about seeing one of my best friends.

As I took the next step though, my foot landed in a thin layer of water instead of the sand that had been there. I looked down at the water and saw that it was black, I gasped loudly but no one else seemed to pay much mind to the water... did they even see it? This was the first time I had ever been in the waters of the dark ocean... I looked over my shoulder nervously, but nothing was there. I was scared... and I almost wished that I had Taichi or Daisuke here to cling to... I felt tears stinging my eyes as I turned back ahead of me. I looked from one person to the next, each of them seemed fine with the water—but then I noticed that their footsteps weren't causing splashes as mine were. I stopped walking abruptly when I heard a splash behind me.

I turned around quickly and came face to face with a tall Divermon.

I closed my eyes and screamed, holding my head in my hands. Soon there were hands wrapped around me and I screamed louder struggling to get free.

"Hikari!" I stopped. It was Michael. I slowly opened my eyes and the water was gone, it had turned into a leaf and twig covered ground, the Divermon was no longer standing there. I sighed with relief as I turned back to the others who were all staring at me as if I was a ticking time bomb. "What happened?" Michael asked me.

"Don't... worry about it." I told him. "I'm okay now... thank you Michael." He slowly let go of me and backed up until he was next to Mimi.

"Alright then..." Mimi said slowly, "Let's just keep going." Slowly they all returned to their walk, all of them pretending that hadn't happened.

"Are you alright?" Gennai asked me, stepping up to me. "What happened? What did you see?"

I looked up at him and smiled, despite being really mean to us all he was still trying to help me feel better... surely there was some good left in him.

"I just saw the dark ocean." I told him. "It was like a puddle... but it was there... and one of the monsters from there... It was behind me..."

"It's okay." Gennai said, patting me on the shoulder gently. "You'll be alright."

"Do you think it was just my imagination?" I asked him.

He shook his head, "No. Dragomon and all of his minions are in this world now." I felt my heart beat speed up and my head started spinning painfully. I looked away from Gennai and saw that Kurayami was no longer walking. She waited until Gennai and I caught up to her and then she joined us.

"Dragomon is here?" She asked flatly. Gennai nodded. "And he was the one that caused the ground to turn to water just then?"

"You saw it?" I asked, pleased that I was not alone in this anymore.

"The ground didn't turn to water." Gennai told us, "That was just your minds. Your minds are linked to the dark ocean because of your crests, and because of this, Dragomon has some control over you both. This world is full of darkness now, and as such is no longer safe for you children. It's no longer safe for anyone."

"Wasn't it you who told me that there is always some good found in the darkness?" Kurayami asked Gennai monotonously, "Maybe we, the digidestined, are the light that you spoke of."

I smiled at Kurayami who was thinking surprisingly positive for someone who seemed more gothic than the law should allow. I looked to Gennai who was also smiling. "Perhaps you're right, but it isn't safe for us to find out. We must send you all back to the human world... or danger will surround you."

"I'm used to danger surrounding me." I said to Gennai, "I live with Daisuke."

Both Gennai and Kurayami started laughing but Kurayami soon stopped abruptly. She slowly turned to Gennai and said, "It's my mother." I was instantly reminded of the day when we had followed Kurayami throughout New York to her mother's grave.

"What about your mother?" I asked her slowly.

"My mother is here." Kurayami said flatly, "In the digital world."

"What?" Both Gennai and I said loudly.

"I thought she was..." I started slowly.

"Dead?" Kurayami finished for me. "You and Daisuke saw my mother's grave. But she was not buried there. We had to explain to the police what had happened... but we couldn't tell them that my mother went to a different dimension where she refused to leave."

"How did she get to the digital world?" Gennai asked slowly.

"She didn't." Kurayami said. "The digital world came to her. She trapped herself in the Dark Ocean, consumed with guilt over her lost son. My brother. She took me with her, but she eventually refused to leave. And then..."

"The two worlds combined." Gennai said quietly.

"Exactly..." Kurayami said, "So my mother, who was creating a link between the dark ocean and Earth is now here. And... I think that is why the rift on Earth opened. She, being in the Digital World now, is a link between Earth and the Digital World." I was shocked... or confused at the very least. Kurayami was making a very specific guess at what was happening, was she sure that that was the problem? And if so then where was her mother? Would we run into her? Would she leave with us?

Gennai was silent, looking up at the sky and then he slowly looked back to Kurayami, "We need to get her back to earth."

"Why?" I asked.

"She can't keep this link active." Gennai explained, "Earth is in danger."

"Earth is always in danger." I laughed, "Haven't you seen any sci-fi, or fantasy movies?"

"No." Gennai said flatly.

"Right..." I said awkwardly.

"I don't think my mother is willing to leave. But you can try." Kurayami explained.

Gennai nodded, "I'm going to have to think of a plan of action now." Gennai said, "Don't mind me..." he slowly drifted to the side, away from Kurayami and I.

"Hikari?" Kurayami said in almost a whisper. "I have something I need to tell you."

"Really?" I asked, "What is it?"

"I—" Kurayami started, but she was cut off by Michael yelling something about taking a break. Everyone agreed and sat down around the base of the trees, and Kurayami grabbed my arm gently and pulled me away from the group a little, "I have a headache."

"Do you have any aspirin?" I asked her.

"No, you don't understand..." Kurayami said, "It feels like something is trying to get inside my head. Like last time... I'm scared."

"We won't let anything hurt you!" I insisted, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her. "I promise."

"I'm not worried about me." Kurayami said slowly, pushing her way out of my grip gently, "Or you. I'm worried about them." She motioned to the others, "I'm worried for everyone else. If I lose control... they won't be safe. You and I will be the only ones left alive. Me, the fuel for darkness, and you, the balance the world needs. But do you really think the world needs courage? Or Friendship. Humans need these traits, but a world in itself does not."

"Kurayami..." I said slowly, "Don't worry... you're going to be okay. I'm going to be okay, we're _all_ going to be okay. Just stick with us. You're our friend and remember that. Stay strong."

"I'll try." She said slowly. "I need a moment." She turned and walked off into the trees.

I watched her go for a moment, walking lazily into the trees across the greyscale forest floor. I told her we were all going to be okay... but I wasn't sure if I believed it. I wanted Kurayami to be my friend more than I'd wanted anything in the past couple years, but she scared me... and she knew it. I slowly turned to the group. "Where are Taichi and Daisuke?" I asked, a little nervous. Mimi and Michael were sitting next to each other with their eyes closed, leaning against a tree, and Takeru was watching Willis with a look of pure disgust.

"They went off into the trees." Mimi explained, pointing the direction the boys had gone, without opening her eyes. "Why do you ask?" I didn't answer her and instead hurried off after them, pushing myself to run even though I knew I would lose too much energy and probably shouldn't. The two of them would likely be in a giant argument already if not literally punching each other in the face repeatedly. I didn't trust them together at all.

"Why did you bring me out here?" I heard Daisuke's voice to the left a little. I looked over and saw them, so I hurried and hid behind a tree, listening to them.

"I'm sorry Daisuke…" Taichi said quickly after a moment of silence, clearly feeling awkward. I had a feeling he wasn't actually feeling sorry for whatever he was apologizing for, but I was pleased that he was at least making an effort.

"Sorry?" Daisuke asked for clarification.

"Yeah," Taichi said, "I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you before… about Hikari… you were just trying to be a good friend. I guess I was just a little scared that she'd like you more than me."

"I'm sorry too…" Daisuke said, "I should have stepped back and let you have some room."

"Maybe—but that doesn't matter now." Taichi said, "We have to work together now… Hikari wants her space and we'll give it to her." I felt a sense of accomplishment that they'd actually be listening to me, "But the world is falling apart and we're all just thinking about our own thing. We need a leader."

"Right!" Daisuke cheered, "So… can I have the goggles back now? My head feels kind of empty without them…"

Taichi chuckled, "One, you're head's always empty."

"Oh ha ha!" Daisuke laughed sarcastically, as I grinned uncontrollably. They were such... boys.

"Two, no you can't have them back… Sora's still got them…" Taichi said.

"Oh right…" Daisuke said sadly.

"And three…" Taichi said, "Goggles belong to a leader. And neither of us have been stepping up to that position. We need to though. We need to be there for the others."

"So if we become leaders… I get them back?" Daisuke asked.

"No—not necessarily…" Taichi said, "If you prove yourself to be a better leader than me, then you get to have them back. But if I'm the better leader by the end of this… then they're mine."

"Deal!" Daisuke cheered, "Who's going to judge?"

"I was thinking me—" Taichi tried.

"Ah—no." Daisuke insisted, "Not so fast… That's totally unfair. We need someone who's totally impartial. It has to be someone here obviously..." he took a moment to think, and then finally he said, "We'll let everyone judge. It'll be like a vote." I groaned, but then winced, hoping they wouldn't hear it. They didn't seem to. During our last trip to the digital world we voted on nearly everything and it always ended up in either a fight or us all splitting up.

"Deal!" Taichi said, "Alright, let's get back to the others now... Hikari is probably worried about us."

I heard their crunching footsteps as they walked past the tree I was behind, and hurried back to the others. I rolled my eyes at them as I slid around the tree so they wouldn't see me. They were such boys... competing to see who got to wear the goggles. I decided that whoever lost this competition would get a pair of goggles from me for Christmas.

I slid my back down the tree until I was sitting. I closed my eyes and took in the calm, quiet surroundings. It felt good to be rid of arguing boys, and Daisuke's loud music, or my mom asking me if I was alright every ten minutes. I took a deep breath and sighed.

"I smelled it first!" A squeaking voice cut through the silence.

"NO!"Another voice argued, "I smelled it first!"

"No I did!" The first voice said again.

"Probably, I still don't smell it to be honest..." The second voice gave up. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around. The voices were familiar but I couldn't find them anywhere, and in my mind I couldn't put a face to the voice.

"Is that?" The second voice said.

"It is!" The first voice cheered. "I saw her first!"

I turned around quickly and gasped as two small digimon jumped into my arms, one brown and one green. "No I did!" the brown said.

"Shut up Kokomon! I saw her first!" The green one giggled, looking up at me. "What are you doing here Hikari?"

I couldn't speak, I found myself just staring down at Kokomon and Gummymon, both of whom were smiling up at me with large grins on their faces. Suddenly I tightened my grip on them and I hugged them tightly.

"Hikari!" They both shouted. "Let go!"

I released them suddenly and they fell into my lap. "What happened to you guys? Why are you not in your mega forms like you were when we left?" I asked them. I was rather upset that this was the first thing I said to them, I didn't even say 'hello!' or 'how are you?' I asked them a serious question...

"It's a long story." They said, looking down, saddened by the thought of what had happened.

"Well... don't worry about that." I said, smiling at them. "Come on, I have a surprise for you both." I scooped them into my arms and jumped to my feet, hurrying along the path Taichi and Daisuke had taken. As I was walking I couldn't help but wonder where the other digimon were, or if they were in a worse state of mind than these two. I tried to push it away from my mind but was unsuccessful.

It didn't take me long to get back to the others where I found Mimi and Michael arguing about who was the better actor in the movie they had seen last, Taichi and Daisuke were looking at the ground, likely thinking of ways to become the true leader of the group. Kurayami wasn't back yet and Takeru was talking to Gennai and Meiyomon.

"Hmmm..." I said slowly, not finding who I was looking for.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. "There you are." Willis' voice sounded from behind me. "We were wondering where you went."

I turned around quickly, a smile on my face. Willis smiled at me for a moment before realizing what was in my arms.

"WILLIS!" The two digimon shrieked happily as they leapt out of my arms and pushed the bewildered Willis back a few feet. He stumbled backwards and then caught his balance and looked up at me and then back to the digimon in his arms.

"Kokomon...?" Willis asked slowly, not believing what he was seeing, "Gummymon...?" his face lit up suddenly as he hugged the two of them close to him. He looked up at me again, a smile on his face, a smile bigger than I had ever seen, "Thank you Hikari..." He said slowly. I nodded at him, in acknowledgement.

I turned back to the others who were all staring at Willis and his digimon with mixed emotions of happiness, glad to see Willis reunited with his partners, and longing, desperate to find their own friends soon as well. "I saw him first!" the two digimon argued moments later.

_**Yoshie:**_

I sighed, placing the last clean dish into the cupboard. I'd just finished cleaning after dinner. A dinner which my little boy didn't even attend. Sometimes I worried about him. He shouldn't be wandering around who knows where at this time of night, no matter what age he was. Twenty was _not_ as old as he seemed to think it was!

Actually, seeing as Koushiro had a very intelligent mind, perhaps he had a very solid grasp of that, and simply chose to ignore it.

I'd missed him so much while he was away. I couldn't be sure he felt the same though. He was always locking himself in his bedroom, typing away on the laptop I'd started to regret getting him just months after its purchase. But the way he depended on it always made me feel guilty for that regret. He could've come out of his room to talk or partake in family movie night. As it was, only that young girl, Mimi Tachikawa I believe, was able to get him to come out. She was sweet, but he needed more social interaction than that.

There were times when I questioned my ability as a parent. Maybe I just wasn't cut out for it. He had _never_ let me help him with anything, he'd never asked his father or I about girls, and he'd given_ us_ a better 'talk' than we'd tried to give him. He practically raised himself. I just wanted him to let me be a part of it.

The knocking at the front door shook me from my musings.

"Coming!" I called, rushing to the door. I'd been afraid it would be one of Koushiro's friends, here to alert me to an accident that took place during their mission, and that I'd never see my boy again. Thankfully when I opened the door, I came face to face with Susumu and Yuuko Yagami.

My relief was short-lived however.

"Are our kids here?" Yuuko asked desperately. "They weren't at home, and the place was a mess. The window was shattered, everything was out of order. And there was a watermelon…."

"Daisuke, Taichi and Hikari were all here earlier. Their little friend Otamamon ate all of their snacks though. I do hope they ate something. They're going to need their energy. They left with their friend Sora to collect Meiyomon from the Hida residence," I said, not paying attention to what it was that was coming out of my lips. I'd been replaying what I'd overheard before Koushiro had closed the door. "Koushiro took the keys to the car. They said the world was hanging in the balance again."

"Were they alright when you last saw them?" Susumu asked hesitantly, afraid of my possible answer.

"Hikari was a little pale, but they were fine. The boys were watching over her," I said. "I don't understand why they were so panicked. In the past they were able to get to the Digital World through a computer. Koushiro needed to find another way in. I do miss Tentomon. I hope to see him again soon."

"They can't go back," Yuuko said, looking at me strangely.

I was confused. Koushiro had never told me that. He implied he saw Tentomon sporadically during the school year.

"Then that's where they're _trying_ to go," I said.

I watched as they shared a nervous and frightened stare, suddenly feeling my worry slip into a panic similar to their own.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Mimi takes charge next time, we'll just have to see what happens!


	12. Decisions

**Y/N: **Sorry that it's kind of…boring. Nothing really happened. I had to work with what was planned…and it appears that our beginnings will always be somewhat slow to start up…

**U/N:** This is... My sister's chapter, with a bit of me being Yamato and Takeru's dad, Hiroaki at the end... I fail at sounding like an adult, so i apologize for that... but otherwise... enjoy, it is two days late, but don't worry, the next one will be up on Wednesday as is scheduled, hopefully... so yeah. Enjoy-also review... :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 11: 24 hours**

_**Mimi:**_

It was the cutest thing ever, to see Willis with Gummymon and Kokomon after a three year period with absolutely no contact. It was almost as if Willis couldn't believe they were really there.

"Is your mom still…like this?" Gummymon asked, sucking in so much air that he expanded in size. I had to keep a hand in front of my mouth to muffle my giggles—I'd met his mom, and as mean as it sounded, it was an accurate description.

It ended up being a bad idea though, because my hands were not the cleanest and I nearly lost my lunch. I wanted a long, hot shower. I wanted it bad. But there wasn't really any indoor plumbing in the Digital World. I supposed I could just dive into the 'Dark Lake' as Taichi had dubbed it, but that idea freaked me out more than smelling like I'd spent the day in a compost pile.

"Not quite," Willis murmured, hugging Gummymon closer again—probably thrilled to hear Gummymon making fun of his mother again. "She lost a little bit of weight. She had to pick up a lot of my old chores when she found I couldn't remember how to do them…."

I did snicker that time. He'd never known how to do chores. For a genius, there was a lot that he needed help to do. I supposed that was the result of getting your digimon to do all of the work for you for years on end. Willis was younger than anyone else when he first met them too. It was hilarious to say the least watching him try and make a sandwich or run a load of laundry. His mom—who'd been pretty lazy in my opinion—had to start doing everything so there wouldn't be a terrible mess left behind every time. She declared he'd caught a selective form of amnesia, and Willis did nothing to dissuade her of that theory. That boy was lazier than his genius suggests. It was always a laugh when friends from school came over to Michael's or my house and saw him. They'd ask why he wasn't at school with us, seeing as he lived in the district, he'd say high school was a waste of his time. Our friends would be all skeptical, thinking he was a no good drop-out—which his lazing around the house seemed to promote—until he'd whip out the thesis on string theory he was writing "Just for fun." As if physics was really fun…. Michael and I would laugh our heads off at the looks on their faces.

"Mimi," Michael said, elbowing my side. It hurt a lot. He'd gotten a lot stronger over the last few months. His agent was trying to get him a role in one of his father's upcoming films, but he didn't fit the build the character required. He'd been building up a lot of muscle since. He wasn't huge, but he was stronger than he thought he was.

"Huh?" I said confused.

"Gennai's talking," he whispered.

I looked to Gennai, and was surprised to find out he was right. Jerk-nai (my personal name for him) was arguing with Taichi and Daisuke, despite the fact that they were obviously not looking at him. They were debating among themselves. _Debating,_ because they were actually being civilized rather than trying to get at each other's throats. It was a step in the right direction in any case.

"You mustn't risk the balance any further!" Jerk-nai was saying.

"They'd want to know," Daisuke told Taichi.

"Yes, but we've got to get a handle on what's going on. You know how they are. They want the information right away. Gennai won't give us anything," Taichi said. I had to agree with him. Ken, Iori, Koushiro and Jou at least would want the information instantly. Sora, Miyako and Yamato would _like_ it, but probably wouldn't hit you if you didn't know anything yet….

"You aren't listening to me," Jerk-nai screamed. "You can't do this!"

"First," I told him. "The _Digital World_ called us here, so we can do whatever we want. If we get too out of whack, the Digital World will just eject us. Second, no one cares what you say, because you don't sound as if you know what you're talking about."

"I know what I'm talking about. I've spent three years watching this destruction, the destruction that was caused by this girl's mother!" Jerk-nai said, trying to demonstrate how clearly inferior I was to him. I got that he was desperate to keep the balance, but with the whole Dark Ocean taking up residence in the Digital World, Kurayami's mother stuck here somewhere, and Meiyomon and Otamamon hanging out on Earth for the past three years, the balance was clearly screwed and us being in the Digital World for twenty-four hours wasn't going to change much. It would probably make things a little better.

I'm not meaning to sound full of myself or anything, but honestly, we _always_ changed the Digital World for the better, every time we stepped foot in it. First we cleared it of Black Gears, then we had to clean up Earth, and then we took out the Dark Masters. Then Ken was taking over, and we got rid of him (I didn't do much…but I'm talking for the group). And then there were the Black Spire digimon, and the various forms of Myotismon we'd faced over the years, and then the crest digimon and the sovereigns and Apocolymon (twice!) and… you know. We've done a lot for the Digital World. I couldn't help but wonder why it kept locking us out.

And Jerk-nai…he gave us some advice the first time around, sure, and he got some friends together to help us around the world, but he made us do all of the work both times. His biggest accomplishment I thought, was how he managed to de-age back to a rather attractive young man from that slightly creepy, floating old guy he'd been.

He was still trying to argue his point when I decided to tune back in to the conversation.

"How her mother even risked the fabric of the universe however, I still don't understand," he said in conclusion. I ridiculously sent him a victorious smirk when he admitted he didn't know something.

"My mother was distraught okay," Kurayami said in her no-nonsense tone that was totally tough sounding. "She couldn't have known what the results of her choice would be. She wasn't the type to think too far into the future. Not after my brother…. No. She just made it through one day at a time."

"It was foolish," Jerk-nai scoffed.

"You're foolish," I muttered under my breath, and Michael had to stifle a laugh. He was still big on the whole Gennai-is-a-super-hero-in-the-Digital-World thing I guessed. My silly comment made _me_ laugh though.

"So do we go get the others or not?" Takeru asked ignoring Jerk-nai and Kurayami's conversation completely.

"We wait I guess," Daisuke said a little bitterly. "There's nothing to tell them yet, and it's not like we've met up with their partners or anything."

"We'll get them soon," Taichi promised. "I just want to know what's going on here. And since Gennai here won't give us a straight answer, I suppose we'll have to figure it out on our own."

"Then we get the others?"

"Then we get the others," Taichi confirmed the question asked by multiple people.

"No," Jerk-nai said. "You will not get the others."

We all ignored him. I mean honestly, I got it. He was scared at what our presence would do. I was kind of terrified of what might be lurking out there. I'd never been to the Dark Ocean, but the stories that Hikari and Ken would talk about when they didn't think I was listening—I wasn't even eavesdropping, they just forgot I was there!—scared the living daylights out of me. And whatever that Dragomon was, I really did _not_ want to find out.

"Willis," Gummymon said. "It's pretty dangerous for you guys to be here…."

"No," Willis said stubbornly. "You are _not_ taking his side!"

"No, no, no, Willis, that's not what he meant," Kokomon protested. "We like you being here."

"I like it the most," Gummymon was quick to say.

"No," Kokomon argued. "I do."

"You're wrong," Gummymon said shaking his head—which was really most of his body—from side to side.

Before it could escalate into too much of a fight, Willis piped in with "_I_ like it the most, and we'll leave it at that."

"Yes, I understand your kinship with your old partners," Jerk-nai said in a voice that _almost_ made me refer to him as Gennai in my head. But only almost. "I understand that the separation is hard. It always is. But it is imperative that you leave this problem to the digimon to take care of."

"Well, I'm off," Kurayami said, wandering a little bit down the path. "Arguing is getting us nowhere. Hikari, do you want to come with me?"

"Yeah," Hikari said giving her a brilliant smile. "Anyone else coming?"

"I will," Takeru, Willis, Daisuke and Taichi said at once.

"Are you going Mimi?" Meiyomon asked me.

"I…I don't know," I admitted. "I kind of want to wait for the others to come. I feel selfish being here, taking up part of our twenty-four hours without telling them that they have this opportunity."

"I can wait with you if you want," he said.

"Me too," Michael said.

"Now wait a minute," Jerk-nai said. "I agreed to let you stay for a twenty-four hour period, but you must stay together throughout. If we were to lose one of you at the end of said time period the result could be detrimental. No. It is best if you all stay with me."

Now, a lot of us were about to protest—none louder than me of course—but he held his hands up in front of him.

"Perhaps I could bring you to the Temple. It is home to all of my people, and is acting as 'home base' as you might say during the course of the war," he informed us.

I grumbled to myself. It just wasn't fair. I didn't want him to follow us around at all let alone expect us to follow him. But there he was, giving us an opportunity we just couldn't refuse. It was the information headquarters for the problem the Digital World was facing. And when Koushiro, Ken, Jou and Iori got to the Digital World ("when", not "if" as Jerk-nai would suggest) they would be so _proud_ of us for having all of this information. Maybe _he_'d even be impressed.

I was totally following Jerk-nai wherever he was planning on leading us.

Even if I didn't want to hear his voice anymore. It was making me angry, the way he was always spewing out words, talking down to us, talking himself up. What happened to the cool Gennai that helped rid Earth of the digimon from around the world? Where was the "floating, glowing guy" that I met when I was ten? Was the stress just getting to him, 'cause if it was, he was reacting to it in a bad way.

"Um…." Taichi muttered. He and Daisuke seemed to be contemplating it.

"I'm going," I said, noticing a twitching on Jerk-nai's face. He was getting frustrated. And a frustrated Jerk-nai could result in a _two_ hour visit to the Digital World instead of twenty-four.

"Me too," Michael said.

"And me," Meiyomon agreed.

Hikari and Kurayami were next. They were talking about learning more about the "magical healing properties" of the Digital World. Willis agreed right after, with the twins bouncing up and down in excitement. If they were excited I was sure it had to be a pretty cool place, which made my decision that much easier. Takeru wanted to go see Patamon, or Tokomon or whatever form his partner was in at the time, I could see that. But he also knew he'd have a better chance at seeing him if he wasn't chucked out of the Digital World.

That left Taichi and Daisuke.

"Guys," Takeru said. "We're going. I don't care what stupid argument you are trying not to get in right now. I do _not_ want to leave the Digital World yet. I've hoped as much as physically possible for the last three years that I would get to come back here, and if you ruin it so help me, I'll…I'll…I'll help Mrs Yagami come up with even more recipes and make her get rid of noodle day—except for Hikari who isn't currently risking my happiness."

"B-but, you couldn't do that," Daisuke said in horror.

"You're too nice," Taichi agreed.

"Try me," he said in a dangerous voice. I felt chills it was that scary.

"What got into you?" Daisuke asked, taking a hesitant step towards Jerk-nai, probably hoping he'd protect him.

"I want to be happy for twenty-four hours, okay? I almost don't even care that it's dull around here and that there are random bouts of beach sand and black water. It's the _Digital World!_ Just let me enjoy it. Please?"

The look in his eyes told me he'd beg if they stalled any longer. I was almost disappointed when they gave in with a quick "Alright!" It would have been interesting to see him beg.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

"Follow me then," Jerk-nai said with a stupid, smug smile on his face. I had to mentally smack myself. I was being such a jerk inside my head. I wasn't any better than he was!

To distract myself, I looked at our ragtag group. Kurayami was beside Daisuke. He was trying to get her involved in a conversation, but her quick, sharp, one-word answers were hindering him. Meiyomon was happily talking to Takeru about all the things he couldn't wait to blow up while he was back home. Takeru wasn't paying attention though. He was looking—almost longingly—at Hikari, while she walked with Willis. He'd say something and she'd giggle before responding. It looked like a lot of flirting to me. The fact that he had absolutely adorable digimon on his shoulders probably added to the appeal for her. They were cute together, I decided. But had a soft spot for little Takeru—who wasn't so little anymore—and he looked upset by this development. I decided to report any findings to Sora, so we could have something to gossip about. It could also act as a mission to get the group to be friends again!

Michael held his bat tightly in one hand, walking side by side with none other than Jerk-nai. And Taichi, well, he fell into step with me.

"Hey Mimi," he said scrunching up his nose. I glared at him. "What's new? Besides your perfume I mean."

"Very funny," I growled.

"I thought so," he said sounding proud of himself. His chuckles soon died down, though the smile remained. "Look at her."

He nodded his head towards Hikari, who was—as I predicted—giggling and smiling.

"She looks happy," I commented.

"She looks _healthy_," he corrected. "There are still signs every once in awhile, a little swaying here, touching her temples there. But there's been so much improvement."

"And it's only been an hour," I said nodding. He was so pleased, so absolutely jovial, it was precious. Only three years before then, the one of the last times I'd seen him, he'd been the exact opposite. He'd ignored her, and now he played the doting brother. It was a nice chage.

"Yeah," Taichi said. "But twenty-four hours can go pretty quickly. What if she goes back to the way she was the minute we leave?"

"Then we'll have to prove to Gennai that we've got what it takes to save the world again," I told him. "No matter what."

_**Hiroaki:**_

I looked nervously at the clock. I only had three hours before I had to be at the restaurant. I didn't want to be late and I knew I was going to need at least an hour to get ready, but I couldn't leave yet. I had to figure out what was going on.

The strange blurry blobs that we had initially thought were ghosts in the monitors were back, but it was different this time. Instead of constantly zooming by, the ghost was just sitting there staring at me. I remembered that Takeru and Yamato had explained it to me... they had told me it was one of their digimon friends, but they had also told me that he was warning them about something dangerous and that this was the only way he could get through to them. So was he doing this again? Was he, the strange digimon friend of my children, trying to warn us that danger was coming again?

I had called Takeru, but just got the answering machine, all the better anyway, I didn't want to talk to Natuko anyway, I didn't want her to think that I was cancelling our date, and I didn't want to worry her. But it worried me that she hadn't picked up the phone... was she out? Was she running away? Had Takeru really been that against the idea of us getting back together? She said she was going to talk to him about it, but had she?

I also tried to call Yamato but he didn't answer his cell phone and I didn't want to keep trying so here I was trying to communicate with the computer, no, with the creature inside the computer screen looking like an idiot to all those around me.

"Just... tell me what's wrong!"I screamed at the computer. "I need to know! Are my sons in danger? Am I in danger? You have to tell me what's wrong!" He still didn't move. I rounded angrily on the worried looking coworkers of the tv studio and growled at them, "Is this some kind of prank? Because if it is—"

"Look!" One of them gasped, pointing dramatically toward the computer screen. I turned quickly and gasped as the computer screen glowed. Slowly a figure began to emerge from the box and then was standing next to me. The digimon was transparent like a ghost and was wearing a large pointed hat and a cape. The digimon stared at me for a moment and I just stared back, unsure of what to say. It looked almost human, but I could tell that it was a digimon... probably because it had just jumped out of my computer screen.

"Gatomon." He said.

"Gatomon?" I asked quickly. I had heard that name before... which one was it? Was it one of my son's digimon—no that was Gabumon... similar but not the same. "Who is Gatomon."

"Gatomon." He said again. "Gatomon... is in trouble. They're all in trouble."

"Is it that guy again? The vampire?" I asked them.

The creature shook his head. "Not this time. Gatmon... is in trouble."

"Yeah you've mentioned that." I told him, "How about we... go find her?" I suggested, trying to be helpful.

"She is not in this world." The digimon said. "We will have to wait until the right time to help Gatomon. As for now, I need you to follow me. We need to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" I asked him sharply, I looked over to the others to see if they knew what he was talking about, but each of them had no more colour in their faces and were shocked as if they'd seen a ghost, and as I looked back to the transparent digimon I realized that they probably had... this digimon had died...

"Prepare for them." He said, then he stuck his hand out. "My name is Wizardmon."

I tried to shake his hand but we both stared at each other awkwardly as my hand went through his. "My name is Hiroaki. Now... who exactly is coming?"

"Follow me... I will show you." And then we were off.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Willis is now… telling us… what happens… with their trip to the Gennai temple place thing. And something interesting will finally happen ;)


	13. DeepSea Dying

**Y/N: **Woohoo! I'm Momoe Inoue this time 'round, and I'm excited about it. And Willis's part…holy exciting Batman! I love Mimi in this chapter. I love Mimi all the time, but this chapter she's like…Super Girl (bonus points to anyone who got that lame pun…) :-)

**U/N:** I wrote this, not particularly happy with it, but I do really like Mimi's rant. ... Enjoy it? Also i kind of forgot about Michael so he doesn't say much... and there is a reason Kura and Daisuke don't say much... so just keep reading and you'll find out soon :P Review please? Also, writing as Willis is REALLY hard for me... because... he's like a genius, and i'm not, but he's also so laid back and relaxed ... so it's like mixing Daisuke with Koushiro! So impossible!

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 12: Deep-Sea Dying**

_**Willis:**_

We walked for quite a while in complete silence, following Gennai's movements. We had made it out of the woods finally, and thank the Digi-God because the ground in there was starting to change so often that I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on at all. We were currently in a wide open field surrounded by tall hills. The grass that covered the hills was a vibrant green, more what I was used to the digital world looking like, but the sky was still grey, and the sun was gone, behind the dark clouds now. All I could see around us were hills, I was actually very curious to find out what was on the other side of them, but I knew I'd find out eventually so I just followed Gennai in silence with everyone else.

I wanted to talk to Gummymon and Kokomon, my two digmon friends that I had cried over at least three times a week for the last three years, but I didn't want to rub it in everyone's faces that I had found my digimon friends and they had not, so I settled with hugging them closely.

Mimi, Taichi, and Takeru were walking next to each other, keeping up with Gennai whereas Michael, Daisuke, and Kurayami were falling behind them, and then Hikari and I were even further back. The look on everyone's faces was very boring, and I had a feeling they were all thinking about their digimon. Meiyomon was running back and forth between Mimi and Gennai, skipping and jumping playfully. I didn't know him too well but I had a feeling he was happy to be home.

I looked down at my own digimon and found that they were sleeping in my arms. I smiled at them and then sighed. Why were they so little? I was pretty sure that we had given up our crests for a reason. We gave them up so these digimon would be able to defend the world with the power of us humans, without us humans ever really being here. I looked ahead of me to Gennai who I knew wouldn't answer because it meant that his plan had failed. He liked to think he was perfect, I knew that about him already without ever really speaking to him. But something had gone wrong... what was it?

I decided that there must have been a digimon stronger than our digmon's mega forms and had destroyed them... but why couldn't they just digvolve again? Then it clicked. The digivices! They literally couldn't Digivolve without the power of the Digivices and Gennai had them all locked up. So really the only thing that was left to figure out was... what the hell beat up my Digimon... because it's going down!

"How much longer do you think the temple is?" Hikari piped up in a whispered tone from right next to me.

I shrugged my shoulders, "No idea... why? Are you getting tired?"

"No." She said quietly, "I'm just thinking that maybe Gennai is trying to trick us. If this temple is much further away it will take us hours to get back to the door."

"Are you insinuating that Gennai is trying to waste our twenty four hours?" I asked her sharply.

She shrugged her shoulders, "It's just a thought. Why would he want us here? He thinks we're going to screw things up... so before we have a chance to fight anything, the twenty four hours will be up and we'll be kicked out."

We both looked toward Gennai with a frown. "I think you might be right." I told her. "If we don't make it to the temple in the next few hours we should turn back and go our own way... that way we might still have enough time to save the digital world.

"Willis..." A voice said from my arms. I looked down to Kokomon who had spoken and smiled. "When you talk... your chest vibrates."

"I'm sorry..." I told them with a smile.

"That's okay... you just woke me up from a really good dream is all." Kokomon was trying to make me feel guilty as she jumped up on my head. I let my arm fall as it was holding nothing now and as it swung it landed in Hikari's hand. She looked up at me with a smile and squeezed my hand. I felt my face turn red for a minute so I looked away.

"Willis your face is sunburned." Gummymon said groggily from my arms. "Your Mom won't be happy when she finds out that you're forgotten your sunscreen!"

"Ohhh I'm telling!" Kokomon grumbled.

"Me too!" Gummymon chimed in.

"I'm telling first!" Kokomon snapped.

"My face isn't sunburned!" I said loudly.

"Yes it is." They said together.

Hikari started laughing which only made me more embarrassed but as I looked to her I saw that her face was turning red too, so I didn't feel so out of place.

We continued to walk in silence a bit. The sun came out from behind the clouds and was now a bright white orb in the sky which was a good sign. But after a few moments it became black again, sending rays of its oxymoronic black light down on us. Finally Gennai stopped and turned around.

"Would you all like a break?" he asked us.

Hikari and I exchanged quick glances and then, before anyone else had a chance to respond both said rather loudly, "No!"

Everyone looked at us, but we didn't change our opinion. If Hikari was right and Gennai was trying to waste our time here a break would be a perfect time waster.

"Does this temple of yours have a shower?" Mimi asked smelling her wrist and gagging.

Gennai shook his head, "There is a community bath."

"She'll take it!" Michael piped up excitedly.

"Michael you're not invited." Mimi shot quickly. I laughed at the thought of Michael and Mimi taking a bath together and then realized that I was technically picturing my friends naked and I shook my head quickly and returned to what was going on. "Let's just go so I can smell better. I don't want Palmon to see me like this."

"Palmon doesn't care what you look like Mimi..." Taichi pointed out. "I'm pretty sure the two of you went through that whole thing multiple times. You both love each other even though you're a spoiled school girl and she's a wrinkly old plant."

"That was rude." Daisuke muttered.

"Yeah it was!" Mimi argued.

"I'm just really hungry!" Taichi sighed. "Is there food at the temple?"

Gennai nodded quickly and instantly Taichi, Takeru, Daisuke and Michael were hurrying off. Hikari laughed at them and I smiled down at her. Gennai turned toward Hikari and I and scowled.

"Relationships within the Digidestined are unsafe." Gennai said flatly.

Hikari released my hand immediately, "Relationship? We're not in a relationship." I felt my heart pang violently for a second and then I turned to Gennai.

"But we're no longer Digidestined anyway." I told him meeting his scowl with one of my own filled with utmost disgust, "According to you."

"You will always be Digidestined." Gennai said, "But you will not always be welcome here in the digital world. You must marry those out of this group."

"What about Sora and Yamato?" Mimi shot, "They're a perfect couple!"

"There are others in a relationship?" Gennai said slowly.

"Yeah." Mimi nodded, "And Ken and Miyako."

"And Mimi and Koushiro!" Meiyomon added. Mimi looked to him in confusion and then looked away flustered.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She said.

"You hugged him..." Meiyomon said. "I just thought..."

"Wrong. You thought wrong." Mimi said flatly.

"Why is a relationship between the Digidestined wrong anyway?" Kurayami asked, stepping out from behind Gennai and causing me to jump in surprise. I had forgotten she was here.

"You're all unsafe as it is." Gennai said, "Starting a family between two Digidestined is just like suicide."

"Well if you keep your side of the deal," Mimi said, "Then we'll be safe. No Digimon will attack us."

"What?" Gennai asked, "That is not why you are unsafe. After coming to the digital world you have... to put it simply... you have messed with your biological structure... and having the digital world locked away from the human world means that you could all die at any moment."

"Is that why I was sick?" Hikari asked, but before Gennai could answer Mimi had slapped him across the face.

Mimi and Gennai stared at each other with death glares for a moment before she tried to slap him again. Gennai caught her hand and pushed her back lightly. "Please refrain from hitting me."

"Why?" Mimi asked loudly and even more flustered than when Meiyomon had accused her of being in love with Koushiro, but this time she was so angry that it seemed she was having trouble putting her thoughts into words. And I couldn't blame her. I sort of didn't take in much of what Gennai had said but I knew it was bad. "You sent us back to the real world and banned us from coming here to do what? To let this world rot and die? And there we all were, sitting alone in the real world thinking we were all doing the right thing?" She was advancing on Gennai as she spoke and he was nervously backing away, "But no! We weren't doing the right thing! We were letting both worlds die! Digimon were destroying earth and the dark ocean was destroying this world. All the while each of us could have just dropped dead at any moment? Well you know what Jerk-nai?" Hikari and I looked at each other in confusion over his nickname, "I've had it up to here with you," She snapped her hand up in the air as a visual, "Hikari was sick because of you! She could have died and it would all be your fault! You don't care about us at all do you? You don't care about anything? You are officially out of the group! Go be someone else's Floating Glowing Guy!"

Kurayami, Meiyomon, Hikari, Gennai and I all stared at her in awe as she took a deep breath. She was mad... like really mad. I'd seen her mad and I'd seen her rant, but never had I seen her like this. She was definitely in a bad mood.

Before anyone could respond to her angry rant there was a loud boom over where the others had run off to. We all looked toward them and saw them running as quickly as they could away from the large cloud of smoke and dust that some explosion had caused. After a few seconds of watching them run, fear across each of their faces a tall figure shot out of the cloud after them. The figure had a black rubber body and thin black tenticles emerging from his back amongst the thick white and purple ones. Over his shoulder a black and lilac coloured cape was flying in the wind... it was Marinedevimon.

Kurayami instantly stood toward him and tried raised her hand. She seemed to be concentrating as hard as she could, but she soon turned to us with a confused look and said "I can't do anything..." She was confused, but I noticed her eyes were dark and unfocused.

I grabbed Hikari's hand as we all turned to run but we barely had taken a few steps when a loud roar sounded behind us and the ground burst open in front of us. My ears popped briefly as I soared through the air. I held on as tightly as I could to Hikari's hand, but as we fell toward the ground her hand slipped and I heard her scream. As I landed roughly in the grass I pulled myself to my feet immediately ignoring the pain in my knee.

"Gummymon?" I called out, "Kokomon? Hikari?" I couldn't see anything. The air was clouded by dust and dirt from the explosion. I tried to stay as calm as I could, but panic was rising quickly as I hurried through the dust.

Soon the dust was fading, and the first thing I saw was Marinedevimon looking to the ground, glaring at the small figure in front of him. "Meiyomon?" I asked out loud.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Meiyomon boomed, "I will not let you harm these children any further!"

Marinedevimon chuckled and then said using his sing song voice, "And you're going to stop me are you? I highly doubt—"

"BOOM!" Meiyomon cut him off with a single word and then just half a second later the ground under Marinedevimon exploded and Meiyomon began laughing manically.

"Willis!" I looked down and smiled broadly at Gummymon and Kokomon who leapt up into my arms.

"Where is Hikari?" I asked them.

"Nice to see you too..." Gummymon sighed.

"She's over there." Kokomon said.

"Over where?" I asked her, I guess she was unaware that she had no fingers to point with. She sighed, "Follow me." She jumped out of my arms and hopped off. I held Gummymon tightly and ran after her trying desperately to ignore Marinedevimon's roars and Meiyomon's screams of fury mixed with mild explosions.

Finally Kokomon skidded to a stop in front of a laying body.

"Hikari!" I gasped, dropping Gummymon. And falling to my knees next to her. I rolled her over and smiled at her as she looked up at me, blinking. "You alright?"

She shook her head and then held up her right arm which had a large gouge in it from elbow to wrist and was bleeding profusely. My eyes widened and I began to panic even more. I didn't know what to do! I'd never studied medical anything! It was boring! I almost found myself calling for Jou before realizing that he wasn't here with us. But before I could do anything I was pushed out of the way.

"Hikari!" Taichi cried out helping her to sit up. I was actually thankful to him for taking over for me. I looked up and saw Gennai running toward Marinedevimon with a strange laser like sword in his hand. Mimi was helping Michael to his feet and Kurayami was holding her head and holding in a scream with Daisuke right next to her. I could tell she was in serious pain. I jumped to my feet and ran toward Marinedevimon passing Takeru, who was staring longingly to Hikari, along the way. I found myself stopping right next to Meiyomon who looked up at me and smiled weakly.

"My booms don't hurt him..." He was sad, and then he turned to Marinedevimon and growled. "Why won't they hurt him? I'm not strong enough!"

"You'll just have to digivolve." I told him.

"But I don't know how!" He admitted. "I can't do it! I've tried..." I didn't know how to comfort him... would he need a digivice like my digimon who I had just noticed that I had left with Hikari, would he need a crest? The crest he had possessed three years ago? Which was that... Miyako's crest of Honour...

I looked up and saw Marinedevimon swat his long white tentacle toward Gennai who jumped into the air and landed on it, running up toward his head quickly and swinging his sword at the digimon. Before he hit him though the digimon reached up and Gennai around the waist and squeazed. Gennai let out a scream of pain and anguish.

"Meiyomon... now's your chance to help." I told him.

Without a second thought he screamed "BOOM!" and Marinedevimon's arm exploded, scratching it slightly and loosening his grip on Gennai who leapt up into the air and threw his sword directly toward Marinedevimon's face. The sword pierced his skin and wedged itself right between the digimon's eyes. Suddenly the digimon burst into bits of data and the sword that had killed it clattered to the ground as Gennai landed smoothly.

I watched in awe as Gennai hurried forward, grabbed his sword and then turned to me with such speed after having been in such pain. "Is everyone alright?" He asked me.

I shook my head, "Hikari—" He was gone, running through the dusty air. I grabbed Meiyomon's hand and ran after him. We passed Kurayami and Daisuke, Kurayami had stopped screaming but was still clutching her head tightly. Takeru was still watching from afar as Mimi, Michael, Taichi, Gummymon and Kokomon surrounded Hikari. Gennai stopped in front of the group of them and asked to see her. Taichi moved and Gennai sat down. Meiyomon and I finally caught up in time to see him roll up his right sleeve.

"What are you doing?" Taichi asked sharply.

"Just be patient young one." Gennai said calmly as he placed his hand over Hikari's wound. I watched as his hand began to glow and Hikari gasped.

"Are you okay?" Taichi asked her quickly.

She didn't answer, her eyes were opened wide and she stared, shocked at Gennai.

Mimi jumped to her feet and jumped over Hikari, punching Gennai in the arm. "Stop! What are you doing?"

Gennai took his hand away from Hikari and we all looked toward her arm as she sighed with relief.

"Her arm." Meiyomon said.

"It's healed?" Michael asked.

It was true! Hikari held up her arm and it looked as good as new, there was no blood, no cut, nothing that would imply that her arm had just been ripped apart. Gennai slowly stood, wincing a little and then turned away. I saw blood drip from his hand.

"Gennai?" I asked slowly. "What's wrong with your—?" Before I could finish my question he had turned around and showed me his arm. He had a long cut from his elbow to his wrist... just like Hikari had had.

"I took her wound." He said simply.

"What?" Hikari gasped, sitting up quickly, "Why? Give it back! You don't deserve to be hurt! I was the one who was stupid enough to get into his way!"

"Even though you aren't meant to be here..." Gennai said, "You are still more important than I. You cannot be harmed..." We all stared in confusion at Gennai's strange change of heart. "Without light... everything would turn to chaos."

"I'm taking it back." Mimi said suddenly before any of us had time to register what he had said.

"Pardon me?" Gennai asked as Gummymon and Kokomon returned to my arms practically purring.

"I take back what I said." Mimi clarified. "You obviously do care about us... you killed that digimon... and you healed Hikari at your own risk."

"Thank you." Gennai said with a small smile. "Now excuse me while I tend to my new wound." He turned and walked off.

"That was really nice of you." Michael said as Taichi jumped up and turned to me. He motioned for me to follow him and then walked off. I followed him slowly, confused as to what he would want to talk to me about.

"Not really." Mimi said, "I still think he's a jerk. I still think he has no respect for us, and it is still his fault that Hikari was sick. I just I take back what I said about him not caring about us. I didn't say I was sorry."

"Oh..." Michael said. And then I focused on Taichi who turned around quickly and stared at me.

"Can I help you?" I asked him slowly.

He nodded quickly, "I'm just going to get straight to the point." He said, "You and Hikari have obviously got something going on... and I want you to keep her safe. I want you to make sure nothing else happens to her. Because she won't let me do it. And that means I have to trust you to do it. Can you promise to keep her safe?" I thought instantly of when he had to push me out of the way because I didn't know how to help her. I would just have to try harder next time... "Can you promise me?" Taichi repeated.

I nodded. "Yes... Yes I promise."

_**Momoe:**_

It was good to be home. I kept telling myself that anyway. I was rather nervous to be honest. I hadn't been in _Japan_ in over two months, let alone Odaiba. I hadn't been there in nearly six months. I hadn't seen my parents, or my big brother or my sisters.

I missed them. All of them. I didn't think that was possible before I left. Growing up without a moment to yourself, and then heading straight into university, where people were around you all the time…I'd never truly gotten time alone.

Two months was too much alone time.

But I was back, and it didn't matter anymore that I'd run off to 'find myself'. That was just an excuse. I needed time to think things over, without Jou being around _all the time_.

And now I had to meet up with my parents for dinner the following night—I may have lied about my flight's date, hoping to get over the jetlag before meeting them, and let's face it. I wasn't ready to face them. I'd been avoiding them for so long.

I sighed, before thanking some stranger for helping me get my luggage off of the conveyer belt. I _could_ have done it myself, but it was such a big bag, and his help was very much appreciated.

Dragging my bag behind me—thanking the heavens that it had wheels—I passed by a family with bags of various fast foods. The smell churned my stomach, and I was once again thrilled to be over being sick. I thought I might even have to get myself some.

When I reached the front entrance of the airport, I let myself smile. Seeing the streets in the distance, the hundreds of cars in the parking-lot, the planes taking off and landing…and the sun as it beat down on me, it was so comforting. The noise and the hustle and bustle, it was much more soothing than my vacation in a mountain cabin in Canada proved to be.

I pulled out my cell phone, and picked the number I was most anxious to call. The phone dialed, and I listened impatiently to the ringing. It rang five times.

"Hello? This is Miyako," my sister said confused.

"I know," I said. "That's why I called. It's Momoe, your sister."

"Momoe! You're back," she exclaimed. "Jou's here. Do you want to talk to Jou?"

"No," I said quickly. "No. I called you for a reason."

"Oh, what's up, what's wrong?" she said switching into her favourite panic mode. I could almost hear Jou in the background and was a little disappointed that he didn't seem to be participating in his own brand of panic. He was arguing with someone else. A friend of his and my sister's I'd never met I supposed.

"Nothing's wrong per say," I said "I just wanted to meet up with you first. I'd rather see my baby sister who actually bothered to keep in contact before I worry about the rest of our family."

"I'm at camp. You know, the one where—"

"I know the one," I said cutting her off. I had reached my car, and was struggling to put my luggage in the trunk. "Not far from Odaiba is it?"

"Not really. Anywhere from twenty minutes to forty-five, depending on how fast you go," she said. I had a sinking feeling she knew this through experience. I was praying she wasn't the driver to make it in twenty.

"I'll meet you there then," I said. "Unless you think you're leaving."

"Not in the foreseeable future anyway," she said, before turning to shout 'I'M STAYING HERE THEN, YOU GUYS GO ON THE DIGI-HUNT!' before returning to our phone conversation. "Yeah, I'll be here."

"Then I'll meet you there," I said, slipping behind the wheel of my car. It was so good to be back.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Iori is the next narrator. We finally get to see what's going on in the real world while the others are in the Digital-Ocean-World. Stay tuned!


	14. Live Action Role Playing?

**Y/N: **I really enjoyed writing this chapter, but I didn't want to rush it like I did the chapters at the end of Digimon Adventure 03, so I'm sorry for the wait, but I wanted it to be worth it. Also the lame pun was the super girl comment. One of Mimi's Japanese songs is called Super Girl, so it was a terrible pun, but that's what it was. Sorry it was so lame… But I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it. Leave a review if you feel inclined, thanks. Also someone mentioned that Koushiro wouldn't be so mean to Otamamon in a review, and it was just something we decided to do, have Koushiro and Otamamon clash really badly. It made it so there was more dimension in the group, instead of having everyone love being around everyone else…except Michael for some reason…haha.

**U/N:** I like this chapter... it kind of makes up for not only the wait but also for the lack of the earth based chapters... Also we're starting to get somewhere... kinda... with the parents... so that's cool, aha... uhm... also yeah Sora's chapter will hopefully also be up today at some point... so hurray! :D If i get it done... sorry for the wait. By Saturday you'll have Sora's and whoever comes next... Ken? maybe? Daisuke? i don't know... you'll have them both anyway. Also, review? Thanks :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 12: Live Action Role Playing?**

_**Iori:**_

They were gone. It was a weird feeling, watching others go into the Digital World when you want so badly to go in yourself. It was silent for a moment as we stood there. Thoughts passed through my brain, thoughts I didn't want to think about. What if they get stuck there? What if I never see them again? _When_ would I see them again? And, though I'm ashamed to admit it, the thought that stood out the most was: when would I join them?

I wanted to go so badly. I'd just watched my digi-brother disappear into a doorway that was floating mid-air. It seemed so surreal that they could have succeeded in making it to the Digital World, but it was much stranger to think that I stayed behind.

I stayed behind because Michael had said he was going.

_Michael_!

It was because of that moron that I let my little brother go off on his own into the Digital World. It was because of Michael that I wouldn't be going to see Armadillomon immediately, if ever. I would be risking my life in the real world while Michael was hanging out in the Digital one. If I had to risk my life, I'd rather do it in the Digital World, thank you very much.

"Alright," Koushiro said with a lingering look at the doorway as Otamamon jumped playfully around his feet. "Takeru assigned Yamato a rather hefty job. As we have no digimon"—"Hey!"—"and no real weaponry that could be used in such a situation, we'll have to lead the digimon back here, to the gateway."

"You say that as if you're volunteering your life for my job," Yamato said in a joking sort of way. He was kidding, but his eyes showed just how grateful he was to have help.

I shook my head. He shouldn't have _ever_ thought we'd let him do it alone. I gripped the metal pipe I had found on our way here, and nodded in his direction. "I'm doing just that."

"Me too," Sora said with a smile and a reassuring squeeze to his hand.

"Right," Miyako said. "We already know that we're all helping, there's no point denying it, and it's a waste of time to dramatically sign up for what might possibly be a death wish. What's next?"

Ken, Otamamon and Jou snickered at her comment. I just tightened my grip. I wasn't being dramatic. I was reassuring Yamato that he wouldn't be dying alone. It only _seemed_ dramatic….

"As I said. We have no digimon," Koushiro said.

"I'm still right here!" Otamamon shouted angrily.

"Fine," he conceded. "We have no _useful_ digimon, so we'll have to use ourselves as bait."

"I can be bait," Jou said nervously. "But I'd prefer if we took a vote about that."

"Why do we need to vote?" Koushiro argued. "It is the viable option."

"How is risking our lives practical?" Jou asked him.

That's when Miyako jumped, her hand rushing to the bag around her shoulder. "My phone?" she murmured. I snorted. She would forget she had her phone in with her. It must have been on vibrate based on her reaction.

"Hello? This is Miyako," she said. I held back a second snort. She hadn't even checked who it was. "Momoe! You're back." I perked up at that. "Jou's here. Do you want to talk to Jou?" It didn't bother me so much that I was eavesdropping, but it did kind of bother me that Jou didn't take any notice of what Miyako had said. He was still arguing with Koushiro about risking his life.

"I just want to keep my family safe," Koushiro was saying. "And if I have to risk my safety to do so, then I will. I need to get the digimon back where they belong. Alright?"

"You want to do this, that's fine. Whatever," Jou countered. "But you can't just declare that everyone has to act as live bait just to suit your plan."

"I didn't say that," Koushiro said. "If you don't want to help you can stay and monitor the doorway."

"That's your job," Jou pointed out.

"I realize I need to keep it open," Koushiro said. "But I need to be doing something right now, with the others doing who knows what in the Digital World. I don't know what's wrong with it, but I know it's something big. I need to keep my mind off of whatever that is."

I noticed the strange look Sora was giving him. The sly smile that spread across her face was hard to miss as well.

"I don't want to stay here and look after the door," Jou said looking confused at Koushiro's earlier comment, but nodding with his current one. "I need to keep busy."

"Oh, what's up, what's wrong?" Miyako asked Momoe in a state of panic. I turned away from the argument and looked to her, making sure everything was alright. "I'm at camp. You know, the one where—"

Her eyebrow twitched when Jou and Koushiro's strange non-argument continued.

"If you didn't want to stay behind, then why were you so adamant that my plan was wrong?" Koushiro asked.

"Because," Jou said, throwing his hands in the air. "There's always a choice, and we need someone to stay behind. I was pointing out that those who didn't want to risk their lives in this death mission had the choice to be assured their lives."

"Well, why didn't you just say so instead of conflicting with my chosen plan of attack?" Koushiro asked crossing his arms to glare at the older boy.

"Because you're so headstrong," Jou grumbled. "And you're really rude to Otamamon."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Not really. Anywhere from twenty minutes to forty-five, depending on how fast you go," Miyako said, raising her voice to be heard over the argument.

"It's hard to have a united front when you so obviously _hate_ one of our team members," Jou pointed out. I had to admit he had a point. But then, so did Koushiro. That digimon got on my nerves easily and quickly, but he was still particularly rude to Otamamon…

"Not in the foreseeable future anyway," Miyako said. She turned to look at the arguing boys—who already had quite the audience, with Sora, Yamato, Ken and Otamamon staring at them in awe—to yell "I'M STAYING HERE THEN, YOU GUYS GO ON THE DIGI-HUNT!"

That solved that problem.

"I'll stay with her," Ken suggested. I knew why he suggested it of course and rolled my eyes at his attempted nonchalance. "Just in case one of the digimon get here before you guys do. Two people have a better chance than one."

"Yeah," Miyako said. "I'll be here." She hung up her phone and turned to us. "Momoe's coming. She was on a mission. She didn't even let me try and convince her otherwise. You guys have to hurry. I can't have my sister get hurt while you're carrying out the plan."

"Right," Jou said suddenly focused, the argument about Otamamon forgotten. "Smaller groups. We'll split up, that way we've got twice the chance of running into one of them."

"And we're looking for LadyDevimon, SkullSatamon and who?" Yamato asked.

"I think it was MarineDevimon," Sora said.

"It was! It was!" Otamamon said happily.

"Koushiro," Sora announced. "Will be coming with me. Or, as he's the one with the vehicle, I'll be going with him. I have some…questions for him."

Koushiro looked nervous—rightly so if the look on her face was any indication.

"I'm entrusting Yamato to Jou and Iori," she continued.

I blinked, and stared at her, thinking I'd heard it wrong.

She hadn't entrusted me to someone.

She trusted Yamato _to_ me.

Wow.

I quickly shook the surprise off, and nodded, sending a smirk in Yamato's direction.

"Ken and Miyako are going to watch the gate, at least until Momoe arrives," she added. "Then Ken might be watching it on his own. We can't risk Momoe getting lured into the Digital World. I wish I knew what the problem was…."

"I agree," Koushiro said looking longingly at the door. "And Ken and Miyako are fortuitous volunteers, as they work here. They won't seem too out of place, and they know their way around better than nearly everyone else."

"What about me?" Otamamon asked.

"You'll come with us," Sora said smiling gently at the digimon.

"I no longer agree," Koushiro grumbled, glaring fiercely at Otamamon. "I think he should just stay here."

"Momoe's never met a digimon before," Miyako said.

"Then he can go with the others," Koushiro said pleadingly.

"I wanna go with Sora," Otamamon said happily.

"Me too," Yamato said. "If I'm going to die, I'd like to do it knowing I've given my all to help protect my loved ones."

"None of the evil digimon would be willing to wait while we fight over who gets to sacrifice themselves for the other," Sora snapped at him. "I love you, but we can't do that. We'd both end up dead. It's much safer this way."

"Fine," Yamato said, walking to her and enveloping her in a gentle embrace.

That's when I turned around. I found it uncomfortable watching people being together like that, so obviously in love. It was lucky with Yamato and Sora that I'd only really gotten to know them when they were already in love.

Love changed people.

It was as simple as that. Taichi changed for the worse when he was in love with Sora, if Hikari's crying phone calls were any indication. Sora was still kind though when she was with Taichi. I think it was the fact that she was in love with both of them that made it so she hadn't really changed. Yamato had always been in love with her. Koushiro…if he was falling in love like I suspected, he was going to change too. I didn't want that. He was my idol. He was so focused, so driven, so impossible to distract. And love would distract him. Takeru and Michael were prone to jealousy when love was involved. Michael wouldn't even allow me to introduce myself to Tatum when we were in New York after all. And Takeru couldn't even hear Willis' name anymore without glaring. Mimi was still the same bubbly girl—which made me wonder how that would affect Koushiro's growing affections—she'd always been. Miyako and Ken were something else altogether. I was there the entire journey, when they hated one another, to the point where their love flourished. It was simple, effortless, and I could accept it without much thought. Jou was different too. But with Jou it was confusing. On one hand, he was more relaxed and happy, but lately he was tenser, more confused. I didn't know what to think of his reaction to love.

Noriko on the other hand I didn't _want_ to think about. When I liked her, I was different then what I became when she ruined love for me. I was hardened against it. And then she became something akin to a stalker. She demonstrated to me love at its scariest.

"Iori," Yamato said, pulling me from my musing.

"Yeah?" I asked, not daring to turn around.

"We're ready," he said awkwardly. I took that as confirmation that it was safe to turn around.

"You be careful," Miyako instructed me. "Your mother will kill me if anything happens to you. She blames me, I think, for your involvement in anything digital."

"Let her," I said smiling…almost. "I'm thankful."

"Good," she said happily, hugging me causing me to squirm uncomfortably. It was the second hug within a half hour. First Hikari and then her. Didn't they understand that I was done with female attention? I didn't want male attention either…but it was attention of the female variety that had been making my skin crawl.

The only girl I could be all that close to was Natsuni, and that was only because I hardly thought of her as a girl. Just as my best friend.

_I ought to text her _I thought to myself. I'd made plans for a few days in the future that, with the mysterious threat to the Digital World, I wouldn't be able to keep.

"Be careful," Ken told us all. He was careful not to keep his eyes on me too long. I was thankful he was trying, but still upset that he focused on me as long as he did… It was like they didn't realize I was _sixteen_. Not the eleven year old I'd been when I'd first discovered the Digital World. But I was getting better. I didn't even voice my displeasure.

"We will," Jou said. "Take care of each other and Momoe when she gets here…."

"Of course," Miyako said, hugging Jou next. The others got a hug of their own in quick succession before we were able to get over to the cars.

"I love you," Sora announced, staring at Yamato.

"I love you too," he said, swallowing thickly.

They got in their own vehicles before they could make a bigger production about it. I was thankful for that. I didn't want to waste any more time pretending there wasn't a love fest going on behind my turned back.

Otamamon hopped in Sora's open door, causing Koushiro to groan. I let a smile cross my face when I thought of the arguing Sora sentenced herself to. "Good luck," I couldn't help but say. Between Otamamon and Sora's interrogation, he was in for a long trip, before they could even get to the part where they searched for digimon. I was chuckling when I got into the back seat of the car Jou had borrowed to get us to camp.

"I give him twenty minutes," I muttered.

"I'd say five," Yamato said, forcing himself to sound cheerful. "She's determined, and Otamamon annoys him like it's his job."

"We need a plan," Jou said, starting the car. "Being bait is a good base for a plan, or, it's as good a start as any, but that's all it is: a start."

"Running up and down the street won't draw their attention. Not unless we're calling out for them the whole time," Yamato commented. "And I don't fancy making a fool of myself."

"I don't want to alert more people of the threat than necessary," I commented.

"Good point," Jou said. "They aren't going to be out in the open though…."

"Iori's metal pipe should cause enough commotion to catch their attention in any case," Yamato said.

Over the course of the twenty-six minute drive, Yamato's theories got progressively stranger, ending with "And then one of us"—Jou, I decided—"is running around without clothing, because nothing catches someone's attention like streaking, and of course we'll have to dodge the police, but the digimon will come straight for us, I mean, what evil digimon could resist that easy of a target?"

"No," Jou said, as the car came to a stop.

"Why are we stopping?" I asked, nervously looking out each window, searching for our enemies.

"Traffic," Jou said irately. "Couldn't traffic have waited an hour before it decided to be a problem?"

"I doubt we have an hour. The digimon wouldn't have been lying in wait, searching for just us specifically," I pointed out. "There are loads of other kids that know what a digimon is. We have to hurry."

"Well, I can't get the car moving," Jou said. "We're stuck here until the line picks up again."

"Iori's right," Yamato said, bouncing around, itching to get a move on. "We've got to find them."

"I know he's right," Jou said laying on the car horn. "Damn, why can't we get moving?"

"The car is a hindrance," I commented, reaching for the door. "I'm going to start walking. Keep an eye on Yamato, Jou." I couldn't resist the tease. Yamato grumbled something unintelligible.

"I'm going with him," he said louder. "We're not getting anywhere. Every second counts. Pull the car to the curb."

"Fine," Jou said, spinning the wheel so suddenly, I nearly fell out my open door. "Let's go then."

We ditched the car in favour of our own two feet. It wasn't very fast. On the contrary, it was slow going. We had to weave in and out of the pedestrians on the sidewalk, hoping not to disrupt them too much. We wanted them to live after all, and causing a nuisance when we were spotted by the evil digimon would most undoubtedly result in their deaths.

In the end, it didn't matter. My metal pipe—that I simply refused to abandon—caused much strife of its own.

People were staring. They must've thought us to be part of a gang. Well…we were, just not the type that they were thinking. The fierce determination on our faces paired with the speed and increasing reckless abandon ended up scaring a lot of people. The longer we searched, the more room people gave us on the walkway. Mothers were ushering their children into the nearest stores and alleyways as we got close.

We soon left Main Street. The digimon weren't there. They would've caught sight of us by then. Instead, we chose to head over to the lesser streets, the housing districts, more specifically _my_ street.

"This is the last area we spotted them," Yamato had said. "They might still be looking for us around here."

It made sense.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Yamato shouted to the sky.

"Yamato," Jou hissed as the few people wandering the street sent strange looks our way. "Shut up!"

"What?" he asked defensively. "We want them after us, not innocents."

"To be fair," I said. "We didn't _do_ anything this time. They're attacking for fun."

"Well, we're the only ones that know how to deal with them," he insisted, before shouting out again. "Come and get us you monsters! We're waiting."

"_Yamato_," I shouted. "Don't make me hit you with this!"

"You too?" he asked shocked.

"We weren't going to announce it," I scolded him.

"Well, plans change," he said. "We aren't accomplishing anything just wandering around."

"Do you want to shout our names out? The civilians think we're pretty outlandish as it is, all they need is confirmation of our identities," I said. "LadyDevimon, SkullSatamon, MarineDevimon! I'm right here. Me! Iori Hida!"

"Iori?"

I stopped.

_That had better not have worked…_

But it hadn't. It was a girl's voice. A terrifying voice. One that I avoided at all costs no matter what.

"Iori! I'm over here!"

"Damn," I said. "Shouldn't have yelled. We'd better get going."

"Why?" Jou asked.

"Who is it?" Yamato added.

"Someone I can't bear to stomach today," I said.

"She sounds like she needs you," Jou commented.

"She sounds like a creepy stalker that makes my skin crawl," I corrected. "Let's go, before she finds me."

"Iori, please help me!"

_Damn_. I knew I had to go and find her after that. It wasn't in me to leave someone in need like that. Especially when I didn't know what was troubling her.

"If it's something stupid, you'll have to hold me back," I instructed them, clutching my metal rod like a lifeline.

What I saw however had me gripping it in anger in an instant. Down the street, just near the corner, was Noriko…but she wasn't alone. SkullSatamon had a grip on her arm, and he wasn't letting go anytime soon. She was struggling against him, but it was a losing battle.

"Help," she shouted again. "I NEED HELP!"

"I'm coming!" I yelled out, berating myself for thinking—just for a moment—that it might not be so bad if he were to take her away. I wanted her out of my hair—and life—but this wasn't what I had in mind.

"What are we waiting for?" Yamato asked, running ahead of me. Jou was more cautioned, but after I took off at a run, I heard him start after me. The two of us had to keep Yamato safe after all.

"Let her go!" Jou told SkullSatamon. "She's innocent."

"She's useful," SkullSatamon said in his low, gravelly voice.

"No, I'm really not," Noriko told him. I put all my weight behind me as I swung the rod to hit his shins. He didn't even wince.

"Help me," Noriko pleaded, her eyes locking with mine. There were tears gathering, but she refused to let them fall. Her fear made her voice wobble.

"I will," I promised.

We both knew he was leaving then. Tucking her under his arm, he seemed to disappear, he was moving so fast. It was only due to Noriko's voice that I knew what direction they'd gone. I gave chase, running as fast as I could, putting all my energy into it…and more. Yamato and Jou were behind me, but it wasn't enough.

"I'll be waiting!" she shouted, her voiced echoed by the menacing laugh of SkullSatamon.

I fell to my knees, ignoring the pain inflicted by the contact with the concrete.

"We'll get her later," Yamato said confidently. "She'll be fine."

"I…I should have l-listened to h-her at f-first," I said trying to catch my breath from the running. "Instead I ig-ignored her. She n-needed help and I d-didn't give it to her. All because she f-follows me around, wants to b-be my girlfriend. I-I can't stand her…"

"But you didn't want something like this to happen," Yamato said, nodding in understanding.

"It is n-not your f-fault," Jou said, catching up to us, clearly even more out of breath than myself.

"We've got to keep moving," Yamato said. He and Jou pulled me to my feet, before he shoved my metal pipe into my hands.

We started down the street again, with no destination in plan. We were merely following the general direction we saw SkullSatamon take Noriko in. It couldn't have been more than five minutes before we ran into someone else I knew.

"Hey Iori," she said happily. "Mr Ishida and Mr Kido, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Hey," Yamato said. "I'm going down to the corner."

"I'll go too," Jou said, waving a greeting to Natsuni.

"What are you up to?" I asked awkwardly trying to hide the rod of metal behind my back. I supposed that made it more obvious that I was wielding a hunk of metal though.

"Just saw a movie," she said, pointing to the movie theatre behind her. "Gotta love a good matinee…"

"Yeah," I said, trying not to make it too obvious that I was looking for an evil digimon as I scanned the skies.

"I was going to invite you," she was quick to assure me. "But your mom gave me the wildest excuse as to why that wasn't possible. I think you ought to tell her we aren't secretly dating behind her back. She's always giving me weird looks, but she's never put so much effort into it before."

"Oh? What'd she say?" I asked to be polite. I couldn't tell her I didn't have time for this.

"That you were too busy saving the world. I don't think she knows I'm sixteen, not seven. I know that isn't a serious reason," she said, rolling her eyes. I supposed Meiyomon had left my mother a note before leaving with Koushiro. Great. I knew a lecture about responsibility waited for me when I finished with the digital threat.

"Actually," I said with a nervous laugh. "About that…"

"Yeah?" she said perking up with my take on my mother's current bout of 'insanity'.

"Well," I said, but I couldn't finish the thought.

"Iori," Yamato yelled suddenly. "We've got to move."

"What? Who'd you find?" I asked remembering the seriousness of the situation.

"Koushiro and Sora have a tail on LadyDevimon," he explained.

"We've got to get to the car," Jou added. "They're headed east."

"The camp," I murmured. "Miyako and Ken have no defenses!"

"I know," Yamato said. "Sora and Koushiro are on it, but I'd like to help them."

"It's better than a fruitless search," I said with a nod.

"And Momoe's on her way too," Jou said frantically trying to hurry us up.

"What are you on about?" Natsuni asked, looking between the older boys before turning to me for the answers.

"It's a save-the-world kind of thing," Yamato said dismissively. "Let's go." He grabbed my arm leaving Jou to trail after us. I realized how close we were to the car. Our wild goose chase after Noriko had rather conveniently brought us full circle.

"Get in," Jou said pulling the keys from his pocket.

"Oh no," Natsuni said. "You are not leaving me here alone while you pretend to go save the world."

"We're not pretending," Yamato said firmly.

"Get Sora on the phone. We need to keep contact," Jou told him.

"Right," he said dialling the number as he slipped into the passenger seat. I crawled into the back, and buckled up right away. The traffic hadn't changed much. I anticipated some pretty frightening driving.

"Natsuni," I hissed as she got in the back as well. "What are you doing?"

"If the world is really in danger, what makes you think it'll be safer if I stay away from you? I could get killed at any second. You guys seem to know what you're doing in any case. I'm kind of leaning towards live-action-role-playing myself, as it seems far too surreal to be a real-life situation," she said locking herself into place with her seatbelt.

"We're headed straight for the danger," Jou warned her.

"Just drive," she said.

He didn't wait for her to change her mind. He laid on the horn and pulled a seriously illegal U-turn onto the sidewalk where he drove back along the line of traffic where we'd first come. People were staring at us in horror as we came closer, waiting until the last possible second to jump out of the way. I clenched my fists around my weapon of choice with each close-call.

"What are you doing!" Natsuni shrieked in panic.

"Getting stuff done," Jou said with a ferocity that surprised me. He must've been incredibly worried about Momoe to cause him to break the law.

"I thought you were allergic to things that are illegal?" I questioned, wincing as a mother pushed her baby's carriage out of the way just in time.

"I took my allergy medicine this morning," Jou said with a very uncharacteristic grin.

When we reached the intersection, Jou pulled out onto the road. This time it was the other drivers that laid on their horns. But we didn't have time to worry about it. Jou wouldn't have given us the time had we even wanted it. He was on a mission, and though I loath to use the term, this Jou was freaking awesome!

"Where are you now?" Yamato asked.

"In the back seat…" Natsuni answered.

"His girlfriend," I said pointing to the phone by his ear. She flushed bright red and nodded, giving only a small "Oops" as a response.

"They're headed to camp. LadyDevimon cut over a section of roads flying. They have to stick to the roads. She was headed over the woods when they last spotted her. She must know where the gate is," Yamato told us.

"Not good," I said. "Miyako and Ken won't be much defense for Momoe if she's there already…"

"I know," Jou said pushing the gas pedal even closer to the floor as he got to an open road. "We've got to get there now."

"You guys take LARP way too seriously," Natsuni said nervously, grasping at the edge of her seat in fear.

"It's not role-playing," I told her with a sigh. "If it were, Jou would be his usual worry-wart self and Yamato would be the somewhat 'cool' loner that doesn't really connect with anyone."

"And you?" she asked.

"He's the baby," Yamato joked. But he wasn't wrong…unfortunately.

"And me?" she prodded.

"The poor girl that got caught in the mess," I said. "You really should have stayed behind."

"I couldn't miss this," she insisted.

"Step on it Jou," Yamato said quickly. "Sora said they've found something. And you're not going to like it."

He didn't take any more prompting. If possible, he pushed the car even faster. I was eternally thankful that there were no on-coming cars in this wooded area to the east of Odaiba. I was even more thankful that we'd yet to run into a single police officer.

I saw the blue of Mrs Izumi's car long before I saw the damage of the scene.

"What's going on?" Natsuni asked fearfully.

I couldn't answer.

Jou stopped the car immediately, cursing under his breath as he took in the scene before us. A dull red car—old and beat up—was upside down in the ditch, one door ripped off. The driver's door was thrown across the street, with scattered bits of red metal littered across the asphalt road.

"Momoe?" Jou asked in a strangled voice.

"Not here anymore," Koushiro muttered drawing all of our attention to him. He was holding his arm tightly. His arm seemed to have the most damage with a large gash along his shoulder. Whatever cut him tore right through his standard long sleeves. Blood stained the shirt and his hand, but otherwise he seemed undamaged.

"We tried to stop her," Sora said from near the car. She looked worse than Koushiro. She was covered from head to toe in dirt and grime, bruises already forming on her forearms and scrapes scattering her legs. "But two humans don't really stand a chance against her. Otamamon's unconscious. He tried so hard." She held up the small violet digimon in her arms to show us. He was breathing slowly.

"We have to follow her," Jou ordered. Sora—despite her goggles—was more than willing to let him lead.

"What hurt them?" Natusni asked me, holding onto my arm rather tightly.

"What I wanted to save you from," I told her.

"Mom's car is a wreck," Koushiro said. "She tore right through the hood and ripped something that's bound to be integral from it. I don't have the time or knowledge to fix it right now."

It looked like it pained him to admit it. I supposed that love wasn't changing him too badly. Perhaps he hadn't reached _love_ just yet.

"Pile in," Jou said. "We're leaving now."

We didn't want to test his patience, and so we piled into the back seat. Yamato forfeited his passenger seat for Koushiro in favour of cuddling with Sora—who was holding poor Otamamon—in the back. Natsuni ended up on my lap with her legs across the others. We weren't children anymore, and didn't fit as easily as we once would have.

"Is there a faster way to camp?" Jou asked Koushiro.

"You could cut through the front field I suppose, if you didn't want to wait to use the drive-way, but it is much safer on the vehicle and the environment if you use the drive-way for its intended purpose," Koushiro answered dutifully.

"Damn kid," Natsuni muttered, clutching my shoulders tightly and curling her legs up. I didn't bother to correct her about Koushiro being a child. I was too busy trying not to get injured as we flew across the grass. The field hadn't been properly cut in what appeared to be months, and was full of rocks and bumps.

"Jou!" Sora gasped. Koushiro could do little more than groan as he held his shoulder away from the seatbelt that had started rubbing against it. Yamato was trying to find something to hold on to, and settled for Sora—though I'm sure he also had an ulterior motive.

"There!" Jou shouted. I looked up, and sure enough, there was LadyDevimon, flying towards the forest. The forest where Miyako and Ken were waiting for our return.

Jou didn't bother to slow down for the supervisor. And for once the supervisor didn't bother us. I suspected he was traumatized by LadyDevimon's sudden appearance. Jou drove straight through the standard blockade, and started to drive down the walking path that lead to the small clearing.

LadyDevimon heard us coming, and turned to give us a sinister grin. Momoe was tucked under one of her arms, struggling to right herself. Momoe nearly ended up hugging her side in her attempts. I was surprised to see Noriko under her other arm. She'd met up with SkullSatamon at some point, and we'd missed it.

What about MarineDevimon? Did we miss him too?

"No," Jou growled as she turned and started to fly faster. He pushed the car as far as it could go, and then some. He pushed it too hard though, and it stalled on him. He didn't take any more than two seconds to get out of the car to continue the chase on foot.

I had my door open not long after, and I nearly threw Natsuni out of the vehicle. I was chasing after Jou as fast as I could. The two of us made it to the clearing in time to see LadyDevimon knock Miyako aside with nothing more than the flap of her wings. Ken took a more physical approach with his defense, and threw himself at her. He caught Noriko's hand, but was unable to free her before LadyDevimon shot him with one of her attacks. He was thrown to the ground. His clothing singed, and his face covered in scratches. He tried in vain to push himself to his feet in time to try again. Miyako was ready however, and tried to get her sister, but Momoe, seeing LadyDevimon's next plan of attack pushed her to safety instead.

Jou was running at LadyDevimon as she stepped backwards through the open doorway.

"No!" he screamed, his voice was raw. "You give them back. Give them back right now!"

"I didn't realize you cared so much for Noriko," Koushiro commented, saying what was on everyone's mind.

"Who?" Jou asked, still staring through the doorway, though he couldn't see LadyDevimon anywhere.

"The other half of 'them'," Yamato prompted.

"The annoying stalker," I supplied.

"Not her," Jou said, his eyes misty. "Momoe."

"I know, Jou," Miyako said, her eyes were filled to the brim with actual tears. "We'll get her back. We have to. She's my big sister."

"The baby," Jou whispered. "What about the baby?"

"What... baby?" Miyako asked voicing my own confusion, and by the look of their faces, Koushiro, Yamato, and Ken were feeling the same.

"She's pregnant?" Sora asked in shock—as much shock as she could muster given the circumstances.

"How far along?" Natsuni asked. I could see her calculating the baby's chances of survival. By the look on her face I had to say it didn't look good.

"Eight months, give or take a week," Jou said falling to his knees and running his hands nervously through his hair. "She was scared to tell her family. I wasn't allowed to say anything. We were going to tell them tomorrow at dinner. Now we might never get the chance."

"You'll still get the chance," Sora said determined. "We're going after them."

"What about SkullSatamon?" I asked.

"Where's MarineDevimon?" Koushiro added.

"He came through here earlier," Miyako said. "We couldn't stop him either. But we thought it was a good thing. We were going to lead them here to get them back where they belong. He didn't have anyone with him. We didn't try very hard to stop him."

"I wonder why he did it though," Ken mused.

"To chase after your other half. They are weak, defenceless. Easy picking in a world they no longer understand," came a gravelly voice. I turned around on reflex, and tucked Natsuni behind me.

"SkullSatamon," I announced.

"You remember," He said pleased to see the fear evident in our faces. He twirled the staff in his hand with ease, drawing my attention to the golden key dangling from the end.

"You took Noriko," I reminded him.

"Annoying child, but yes, I took her," he said. "But it wasn't enough. We needed more."

"What do you need them for?" Koushiro demanded.

"Ah, but that would be telling," SkullSatamon said with a bone-chilling laugh. "I will however, be taking one last souvenir."

He took a step toward me. I poised my metal pipe for an attack, despite its failure in the last skirmish. Natsuni stepped closer to me.

"Iori," she whispered. "I'm scared."

"Don't be," I hissed quietly back. "He can smell it. He feeds on it."

"I can't help it," she said in a quiet, defeated voice. "Tell Jou I'll watch after Momoe."

"He's not getting you," I told her. She nodded, but didn't look convinced. It hurt, I had to say, to have her have such little confidence in me.

"Boo," SkullSatamon whispered in my ear. I hadn't even heard him move!

"No!" I shouted, sending my metal pipe flying at his face. He caught it with one hand, bending it between his fingers. He then tossed it into the trees. I swallowed thickly, before raising my fists.

"You're going to fight me?" he asked amused.

"If I have to," I promised.

"Then it's good that you don't," he said. He reached behind me and grabbed Natsuni. She dug her fingers tighter into my shoulders, but was soon ripped away. "Good for _you_."

"Natsuni!" I shouted as I swung my shaky fists at his arms. "No, leave her alone. She doesn't even believe in digimon."

"Then it is best she start believing," he said with an eerie smile, before heading through the doorway. Just as he was passing through, the frame cracked. It was accompanied by a loud sound, similar to thunder.

And then he was gone too. With _Natsuni_ of all people. My best friend! Oh and he also took my stalker. And Jou's girlfriend... and baby. There was something odd about their choices. Why just them. Had they already collected others without our knowledge?

"We have to follow them," Jou said already heading to the door.

"I can't," Koushiro said. He looked torn. More than torn. He looked heartbroken that he couldn't go too. "I have to watch the door. We can't risk it closing. And we can't risk having someone stumble upon it either."

"I have to go," I said. "Noriko expects me to save her, and I promised Natsuni I would help her. She promised to look after Momoe, if that's any consolation."

"Not much," Jou admitted. Not much meant that it helped some. Natsuni would be proud. "I'm going as well. LadyDevimon stole my future. I'll be damned if I don't get it back."

"I'm going to help you in any way I can," Miyako promised him. "She's my big sister."

"Yeah," Ken said, taking Miyako's hand—though I'm sure it was to help him balance. He was still rather unsteady on his feet.

"We're all going in," Sora announced, but then after noticing Koushiro's expression that clearly read 'fine, go in without me... I'll wait here all alone...' "No, Koushiro, hear me out. You have the _key_. We can close the gate and you can open it again later."

"I don't think it works that way," he said slowly.

"We'll find out, won't we," she said before pushing him into the open door, being mindful of his hurt shoulder and his laptop—which was slung across his other shoulder—and stepping gingerly as she watched her own injuries. "Hurry," she told us. "I don't know how long the gate will stay open with him and the key in the Digital World."

We ran at the door then, not wanting to be left behind. Not wanting to risk the fate of the three young women and the baby.

_**Toshiko:**_

As I sat alone in the kitchen of my house, wondering what to make I found myself craving sugar cookie dough. Specifically. I was confused as to why that was... I hadn't had it in a few years sure, but it was such a very random thing to be craving... I remembered having it once a year for _many_ years... oh! That's right! Sora had asked me to make them once a year, usually around the start of August... to celebrate something about the Digital World...

But, from what I had gathered from my daughter... the digital world was now closed forever. So there was no reason to celebrate it... or make sugar cookies.

I slid from the stool by the marble counter and found myself staring at a photograph of Sora and I on her sixth birthday. I shook my head sharply. All of my friends had told me that it was natural for a child to spend long periods of time away from their parents at the start of adulthood... but not Sora... Sora was my friend... she wouldn't avoid me like this. I just...

Again I shook my head and brought myself to my senses. Sora would come back to me when she was ready. And if she didn't... I would try reaching out to her. I moved and sat down by the window in the sitting room. Being alone all the time got quite boring so I usually found myself tended to my flowers, but there is only much water a flower can take and if I trimmed and tamed them anymore there would be nothing left.

I sighed and leaned against the window before jumping in alarm at the sound of a scream. I hurried toward the door and threw it open, looking around. I had heard screaming earlier and heard people screaming about the devil but suspected it was a childish game but it sounded much more serious this time.

I finally spotted a strange blob of white dragging a person through the air. I ran back into my house in fear, slamming the door behind me. That thing was so familiar... what was it? I was breathing heavily as I hurried toward the kitchen and grabbed a hanging frying pan, and then ran back to barricade the door with my body. It was so... similar to something that I had seen before.

Bakemon!

I suddenly realized that the creature just outside my door in the middle of the street was a Bakemon... a creature that my daughter and I had once faced together... a digimon.

I didn't have time to wonder how or when the digital world was reopened, instead I spun around and opened my front door, determined to rescue whoever it was that the creature had in its grasp. I hurried toward the creature, pushing my way through the screaming crowd leapt forward hitting it across the head with my frying pan. The creature moaned and released the small boy. He landed on the ground, looked back at me with fear filled eyes and then ran off, escaping the digimon.

"Bakemon lose your power?" I tried as the Bakemon turned his deep yellow eyes on me.

"Not this time." He growled.

"Toshiko!" As the ghost digimon's hands wrapped around me another set of arms grabbed me as well, pulling me away from the digimon and to the ground. Whoever had saved me pulled the frying pan out of my hand quickly and swung it toward the digimon. I turned over quickly and saw Hiroaki Ishida, standing bravely in front of Bakemon, but his arms were caught by the digimon and he released the frying pan quickly. I lunged forward and caught the frying pan before jumping to my feet and hitting the creature across the back of the head as hard as I could.

The Bakemon fell from the air and landed with a thud on the pavement.

"What's going on Hiroaki?" I asked him sharply.

He shrugged his shoulders, "You tell me." He shook his head in passing, "Help me carry him. Our children's friend has an idea of what's going on... but having this guy as a hostage can't hurt anything..." I nodded quickly and helped him pick up the ghost digimon... If anyone knew what was going on that was where I needed to be. If digimon were soaring around the world trying to take children, Sora of all people would be unsafe. The digi-destined or whatever those kids called themselves... they were in danger...

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **We're hearing from Sora next, and that will be an incredibly soon update. What will they think of the Digital World now?


	15. Leadership

**Y/N: **I enjoyed reading this one. It was nice and relaxed, but a lot of important stuff goes on here. And we meet another of our Earth counterparts: Rei Saiba this chapter. I hope you like her part…I wasn't sure how to go about writing for her.

**U/N:** Uhm…. So this is… my Sora chapter… Huzzah! It's kind of calming compared to the last chapter, mostly about the decisions of what to do and how they adapt to the digital world compared to the others… and starting on some important character development that will grow into something much more extreme… like Ken and Koushiro… and Sora and Koushiro… and well… everyone aha… enjoy… and review.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 12: Leadership**

_**Sora:**_

I opened my eyes quickly and gasped. I was lying on my back in a thin layer of water that was stinging the cuts on my legs. I sat up quickly and sighed in relief immediately. It was just my imagination... maybe. The ground was now dull sand, shining lightly from the light of the dark orb in the sky that I assumed to be the sun. The sky around the sun was grey and the clouds were thick and dark trees were standing tall, protruding from the sand all around us, a greyish brown trunk with greyish green leaves... Wasn't this supposed to be the digital world? The world where my dreams literally came true? What happened to this place? I didn't have time to figure it out because I was brought to my senses by a groan nearby.

I looked over quickly and saw that Ken was pulling himself to his feet. He looked around before looking down at me and smiling. He saw that I was awake so he pulled me to my feet. I dusted myself off before looking around at the others who were all scattered around in the sand. The door was standing tall in the middle of the strange sandy clearing we seemed to be in. It was closed and had a large crack down the center of it.

"What happened?" Ken asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I have no idea..." I looked over my shoulder, feeling like someone was watching me and then shivered almost violently. I looked quickly back to Ken. "It's almost as if..."

"Almost as if we aren't in the Digital World at all?" Ken suggested before hurrying toward Miyako and shaking her slightly. She was lying next to Iori.

"Yeah... but where would we be?" I asked him. I had a feeling I knew where we might have been, and was hoping that he wouldn't justify my thoughts with an answer.

"The Dark Ocean?" He tried. "I woke up because I was surrounded by water."

"Me too!" I told him quickly. "But if we're in the dark ocean... then where are the others? Are they here too? Are they safe? We have to find them!"

"We have to find Momoe and Iori's friends first." A voice from behind me ordered. I turned around and saw Jou sitting near Yamato who was still lying down. I hurried toward Jou and fell to my knees.

"You alright?" I asked him. He nodded, so I turned to Yamato and shook him lightly. He didn't wake up so I shook him harder and his eyes popped open. "Oh! You're awake?"

"I am now..." He grumbled, pulling himself to a sitting position. "What the hell happened?"

"You were all unconscious." A voice said from the other side of the door. Slowly Koushiro stepped around it, his laptop propped up in one hand and his other hand was on his chin in a very pensive pose.

"Oh and you weren't?" Ken shot as Miyako finally opened her eyes.

"Well of course not." He said flatly, but after seeing the looks we were all giving him he sighed. "I was."

"Duh..." Yamato said.

"I think that the crack in the door had something to do with that." Koushiro said simply. "I believe that the crack in this door is representing a crack in the space time continuum and thus we will all be traveling though—"

"Dude!" Yamato growled, "What?"

"The portal is broKen." Koushiro said simply with a roll of his eyes. "And what's worse..." he reached into his pocket after snapping his laptop shut and pulled out his key. "This won't fix it... or open it."

"What do you mean it won't open it?" Jou asked sharply.

"I mean exactly what I said." Koushiro said through gritted teeth, "Need I repeat myself?"

"No." Jou said, or rather growled as he jumped to his feet.

"Perhaps one of the other keys are meant to open this door...?" Koushiro said more to himself than to anyone. "Perhaps my key was simply to get us to the Digital World and nothing more?"

"Let's go." Jou said flatly, turning on the spot and walking off.

"Jou wait!" Yamato ordered.

"You can't tell me what to do." Jou said, "I need to go save Momoe!"

"And Na...tsuni?" Iori said, rubbing his head as Miyako and Ken successfully pulled him out of his slumber.

"I agree." Miyako said, "We really should get going. I don't want Momoe to be hurt. Let's go Jou."

"We need to figure out what's going on first." Yamato pointed out.

"That's a good point." Ken said, jumping into the discussion, "I think we would be better off letting Koushiro do his thing so we can have a better handling on our surroundings. Only then will we truly know where to go and how to succeed in saving this world."

"Thank you." Koushiro said simply, turning and opening his laptop once more. "If I just..."

"But Momoe!" Jou and Miyako insisted.

"And Natsuni!" Iori added, "Oh right... and Noriko too!"

"Let's split up then?" Yamato suggested simply.

Before anyone had a chance to say anything I jumped into the argument finally. "Oh no you don't!" I snapped, "There is no way we're splitting up into even smaller groups! I have the goggles on my head so I will make the decision! Koushiro can likely do scans and whatnot wherever he is. So let's just get out there and save the others. They need saving more than this door needs a scan."

Judging by the look on Ken, Yamato and Koushiro's faces they did not agree with my choice, but Jou's baby was on the line! And I _really_ wanted to see a baby! This was the moment Mimi and I had been waiting for! We'd been emailing each other trying to guess who the first couple to get married would be, but instead we got a baby! A baby was even better! Not only would this baby set things up for the rest of us, but it was also starting a whole new generation of... well... us! This was so exciting!

"I personally think that the door needs to be opened." Ken said, "That way we'll be able to get back out... are you sure we shouldn't stay here and figure that out?"

"The door should _not_ be opened." Koushiro said loudly, "If the door is opened then the merging of the worlds will happen without a moment's hesitation."

"I thought you said something about both worlds needing to have an imbalance." Jou said. "We're here, sure... but I thought we just got rid of all the digimon in the Human World."

"Maybe so, but are you really willing to risk that?" Koushiro asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Will the crack in the door affect anything?" Miyako asked a little shakily. "I mean... how did it happen? If it was something about us going through, now that we're all here won't the crack grow even more? If the door breaks... that could be just as bad as leaving it open."

"Then we'd best find the others and get out of here." Koushiro said, "And this time we'll leave Meiyomon and Otamamon here."

"Hey!" Iori argued, "We're not leaving Meiyomon."

"Where is Otamamon?" I asked slowly. Koushiro's face turned red quickly and he looked away.

"I haven't got a clue." He said, pretending to be examining the door.

"Koushiro." I demanded. He sighed and pointed over his shoulder. I looked where he was pointing and saw a tree stump. I ran over to it quickly and found that Otamamon was lying behind it. This was really immature for someone who was so smart and acted so mature, pretending he had zero flaws. Even when I was interrogating him he pretended as if he had no flaws. Not true of course... he's a terrible liar. I smiled slyly at him and he nervously looked away as I prodded Otamamon to wake him up.

His eyes popped open suddenly and after a moment of looking around he smiled, "I'm home?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I guess so." He giggled and jumped down into the sand.

"This... isn't home." He said after a moment of skipping around. "It feels... sadder."

Ken and I exchanged knowing glances and then broke eye contact when both Miyako and Yamato eyed us with looks of confusion.

"Alright," Iori said, "If you're all done talking now... I would suggest we get going. Noriko will skin me alive if I keep her waiting."

"I agree with Iori." Jou said, turning and setting off. Iori ran after him quickly and soon Ken was following them. I turned to Koushiro. He sighed finally and closed his laptop before putting it back into its case and following the others. Yamato hurried after him to start questioning him about what was going on.

"What's going on with you and Ken?" Miyako asked with a little skip to catch up to me. "You seem worried."

"It's nothing." I told her with a fake smile, "Don't worry about it Miyako." It was a lie of course... I had woKen up to water... dark water, and as much as I wanted to believe that it was a hallucination, there was no way Ken and I had both imagined it. I never wanted to return here... I had been in the Dark Ocean once... and only because I couldn't figure out what love truly meant. And sure I was a little confused again, but only because my mom was equally confused... and if she was confused about love... then really... what was love?

"If you say so." She said with a smile, "You're a good leader Sora... I kind of trust you more than I trust Daisuke or Taichi."

"Thanks," I told her with a smile, but I wasn't really paying too close attention to her. I looked over my shoulder and sighed. The door was cracked, Miyako had a point... would that affect anything? Everyone back on earth could be in danger if we continued to wander around here...

"What do you think is wrong?" Miyako asked.

"What?" I asked her, before looking up and seeing what she was talking about. The others were all crowded around in a circle arguing.

"What's wrong?" I asked them sharply.

"No one knows where to go." Yamato informed me. No one else even took notice that I had arrived. "Jou and Iori think they know where to go but Ken and Koushiro won't agree until they have proof."

Being a leader was harder than I thought... everyone was always arguing and you had to make up your own mind and let everyone else know that you were right even if you didn't know for sure that you were...

"HEY!" Miyako called out loudly. "SHUT UP!" She screamed again after no one listened to her. Finally everyone turned to look at her. "We don't have proof guys." She said to Koushiro and Ken. "We just know that we need to find the others. I think we should get to higher grounds and see if we can see where they've gone."

"We won't see them." Koushiro said. "We were around that door for at least ten minutes... they're long gone by now."

"Ten minutes?" Iori asked.

"And you didn't wake us up?" Jou growled.

Miyako and I exchanged looks of anger at the boys so she clapped her hands loudly. "Iori, Jou... and Yamato. You guys are a good team. Come with me. We're going to climb this tree and see what we can find."

"I already told you that—" Koushiro started, but he was cut short by a very daring glare by Miyako. The boys stared at the tree for a second and then gasped as Miyako leapt high into the air and grabbed a branch about eight feet up, pulling herself onto the branch. She turned and kept climbing and the boys followed trying not to look up as Miyako was wearing a dress, but I knew her well enough to know that there would be shorts underneath.

I turned to Ken and Koushiro who was starting down in disgust at Otamamon who was watching excitedly as everyone climbed the tree.

"What do you guys think we should do?" I asked them, "I mean... other than scanning the door." I was just trying to make conversation, but I wasn't used to talking to either of them so it was a little awkward for me.

"I think we should destroy Fanglongmon as fast as possible." Koushiro said slowly looking away from Otamamon.

"Who?" Ken and I asked as one.

"Last time we were here..." Koushiro explained, "The Sovereign had said their leader was Fanglongmon, but not once did we see him... he needs to be stopped and then we either need to get out of here or figure out a way for the worlds to remain separated forever... we can't have random digimon running around Earth now can we? It would get hectic."

Ken and I looked to each other and nodded, he had a point... but we had our digimon in the real world before... it was never too bad... then again our partners weren't villainous tyrants who loved destroying things...

Speaking of my digimon... "I think we should find Biyomon." I said with a grin. "I want to hug her... just one more time... at least." I missed her so much... I honestly couldn't wait until I saw her again... she was my best friend... along with everyone else, but still! I missed her so much and I just was not okay with her being gone forever.

"I think we should find Tentomon." Koushiro said, pulling me from my thoughts.

"Awwww!" I smiled, "You miss him? So you _do _have emotions!"

His face turned bright red as I winked at him, he knew what conversation had the potential to resurface so he quickly said, "No!" Then, after clearing his throat, he continued, "I just think that if I can get Tentomon back, who in theory would still be in his mega form, I could go and destroy Fanglongmon and help the world be at peace... because if you look around, it's clearly not." I rolled my eyes at him. He was such a heartless human being! Why couldn't he just show emotion for _once_? Just once I'd like for him to tell me, or anyone really, how he was feeling. He'd almost told me once... that time about four or five years ago in my bedroom, he had told me he thought he was in love... it had seemed like he had meant me, but... I now knew that he didn't mean me. There was no doubt in my mind now that he was in love with Mimi—but then again... I was losing my touch... love was just as confusing as anything else to me now...

"I think we should get Wormmon instead then." Ken said with a grin.

"You think... Wormmon is better than Tentomon?" Koushiro asked as if it were a casual question.

"What?" Ken gasped, "No! I mean... well... yeah I guess. But just because he's my digimon! I'm sure you think that Tentomon is greater..."

"I actually think that all of our digimon are of equal strength and weakness, and that each of them will shine at their own time." Koushiro said.

"Really?" Ken asked.

"Well I used to..." He said with a glare.

"Guys!" I warned, pointing to the goggles. "I am in charge."

"SORA!" I heard a scream from up above. I saw someone fall from the tree, or so I thought, but it was actually Miyako leaping from very high up and landing smoothly. "There was an explosion! I don't know what it was but it's worth checking out."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "No... not if we don't get spotted." She said as Yamato helped Jou and Iori down from the bottom branch of the tree. "I think we should go check it out. Someone could be in trouble—it could be Daisuke and the others!"

"Alright," I agreed, "We'll go, but stay undercover...?" I was nervous. I didn't know how to deal with all of that. I didn't know what to say or who to agree with... all I knew was that I was not fit to be the leader. It was fun for a while, but everyone needed their chance to shine.

Iori, Jou and Yamato had already set off at a run in the direction I assumed they had seen the explosion. Otamamon leapt into Ken's arms, "Go horsie go!" he pointed dramatically after the others and Ken laughed and ran after them.

"You _would_ like Otamamon..." I heard Koushiro grumble before he set off after the others.

Miyako started running after them but I stopped her by putting my hand on her shoulder. "Miyako!" I said, "I need to talk to you real quick."

"Can it wait?" She asked.

I shook my head, but realized I didn't really have to say anything at all... one simple action would say all the words for me.

"Here." I told her as I ripped the goggles off of my head and handed them to Miyako. "Your turn," I said with a smile.

She smiled back and put them on her head before grabbing her arm and pulling me after the boys.

_**Rei:**_

It was a slow day. For me anyway. My brother seemed to find it exciting. I was stuck inside though. I have trouble getting out of the elevator some days, most days actually. But mostly, my mom was just way to overprotective. She didn't want me out of her sight. I can't go outside unless I sneak out—and in my chair it's kind of hard to do. If I get away, I have to text her or else she'll call the police. She did that twice. _Twice!_ In any case, my brother—Neo—had just come rushing into our apartment.

"You'll never guess what I just saw," he said with his standard I-totally-have-something-on-Ishida look that he adopted when we moved across the hall from Yamato Ishida of the Teenage Wolves. He really doesn't like him.

"Probably not," I said. "Unless Yamato was swarmed by females again?"

"No," he said with a snort. "That was, however, hilarious. He was running down the street with a gangly twenty-something year old nerd that didn't seem to know the meaning of exercise, and some kid wielding a metal weapon of some sort. And then he just starts shouting at the sky, telling someone to come and get him. I think he's actually lost his mind."

"I doubt that," I said, scolding him with my tone. "Honestly. He could have been participating in some sort of annual game from when he was younger."

"You're just grasping at strings now," he said with a laugh.

"Yeah, well," I said a tad defensively. He _was_ insulting the coolest neighbour we'd ever had. It was only a small bonus that he was the lead singer of one of my favourite bands. He treated me like a normal person, and didn't stare at my chair. He was genuine. Like Taichi was.

I hadn't told my brother about Taichi yet. Neo couldn't stand my idea of an acquaintance—as that was what Yamato was—I didn't want to see what he thought of my closest friend. We'd gotten really close during the school year. We'd never dated though, so Neo didn't have to worry about that….

"You're here now," I said somewhat suddenly. "Give me ten minutes, and then tell mom that I'm outside."

"Why me? What do you have against me?" He asked.

"I need to get out," I told him. "I've been cooped up since school let out. It's the first time mom's even left me alone in a room. I'm leaving."

"Fine," he said. "You've got seven minutes…because I'm being generous."

"Thank you," I cried happily. "You are the best big brother ever!"

"I know, I know," he said peeking down the hallway to see if mom was coming. He gave me the go ahead, and I was out the door as fast as my wheels could carry me. I'd grabbed my purse on the way out and breathed a sigh of relief when the door closed behind me.

I rolled down to the elevator and pressed the call button. It took two of my seven minutes for the elevator to reach my floor. I was surprised to find Mr Ishida and a woman—who I was almost certain wasn't his ex-wife/current-potential-girlfriend—carrying what appeared to be a child in a white sheet, pretending to be a ghost.

"Should I be calling the police?" I asked uncertain.

"Huh?" Mr Ishida said unintelligently, looking around before he finally looked to me. "Oh, hello Rei."

"Good afternoon Mr Ishida and Miss…"

"Mrs Takenouchi," Mr Ishida filled in. She pursed her lips, but didn't say anything. I supposed something wasn't all that happy at home—or she was just tired of carrying the majority of the weight of that costumed child, which was much more likely.

"Good afternoon Mrs Takenouchi," I said. "It was nice meeting you."

"We've got to get this thing inside and start the questioning," she told Mr Ishida.

"Right," he said. "Sorry, Rei. Can't stay to chat. We've got some work to do. Maybe it will help Yamato."

"Yamato?" I asked my interest piqued. "My brother said he was running around the streets shouting to the sky just a bit ago. Is he in trouble?"

"No," he said quickly—too quickly. "I don't know. He and Taichi and Sora and Takeru and the others know what they're doing. I'm sure they're fine."

"Taichi?" I asked with a ridiculous squeak in my voice.

"Yes," Mrs Takenouchi said. "But he's fine. They're all fine." She wasn't sure she was telling the truth. I could see she was just as nervous as Mr Ishida. "We've got work to do. It would be best if we worked quickly."

"Of course," I said, pushing my chair back to allow them through. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she assured me. "Have a lovely day."

"Be careful," Mr Ishida said. "Here, take this. Just in case."

He handed me a frying pan. I took it gingerly, wondering just what I'd use it for.

"If something comes at you, something not quite human…don't hesitate," He said.

Mrs Takenouchi took the phone I'd had on my lap. She inputted some numbers. "Call us if anything happens. We'll come and get you. Be careful."

"I will," I promised, wondering just what I was getting into.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Daisuke takes the lead next, what's going on with the other group of digi-destined now that they're all in the Digital (Ocean) World?


	16. The Request

**Y/N: **Sorry about the wait. I was simply more interested in writing _my_ next chapter—Ken's—to want to write this group of Digidestined. I got over it, as you can see, and here's the chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Review if you feel so inclined.

**U/N:** sorry it's so late. Everything is hectic at the moment, as in i'm painting my brothers house and don't have time for writing myself, or my own stories let alone edit my sister's parts. But here it is, i'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as i can... which should be... either sunday or monday, or maybe we'll just put it up on wednesday so as to keep the schedule going again... i don't know. But enjoy :D.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 16: The Request**

_**Daisuke:**_

After the fields and hills came more trees. I'd hoped the temple might be there, but I was wrong.

I kind of felt miserable about the state of the Digital World. It was as if I couldn't help but blame myself for what happened, even though Taichi, Hikari and Kurayami admitted to leaving the doors open. I felt that if I had been there, had access to the Digital World, I could have helped prevent it. And—putting myself at risk of sounding incredibly sentimental—a part of me was crying as I walked through the dimmed trees and occasional puddles and batches of sand.

In short, I hated what the Digital World had become.

All because we hadn't been there to stop it.

Which, of course, brought my thoughts to Gennai, the jerk-face that shipped us out in the first place. Mimi seemed to be taking Gennai's actions the worst of all of us. She'd flipped out on him. I found it hilarious, but the way Gennai made sure to walk with at least three people between her and himself made me think she had to have been incredibly terrifying. This of course would have had me laughing out loud had I not been staring at the most depressing forest in all history, bringing me full circle.

The trees looked like they were dying with the way the colour was being sucked out of them. I couldn't help but notice that the trees that had lost the most colour were the ones nearest the sand and dark puddles. Those trees were nearly grey, with very little brown or green signifying life. The sun wasn't particularly warm, nor was it really very pleasant. Unfortunately, it still admitted UV rays that were making me wish I'd brought sun block.

Even the mountain in the distance—that should've been standing tall and majestic—was looming ominously over the rest of the greying forest. The colour, however, wasn't too far from normal. I thought perhaps it was just taller than the Dark Ocean Virus could reach, or maybe the disease just hadn't spread that far yet.

I wondered briefly what Veemon—or X-Veemon or AeroVeedramon or _Demi_Veemon—was doing while all of this was happening. Was it not his duty now to help ensure balance and peace in the Digital World? What was he doing that was more important than keeping the Dark Ocean where it belonged?

Shouldn't he—as the new bearer of the crest of humility—and the others be fighting this battle _with_ Gennai? The majority of them were even at Mega level when we'd last seen them, but glancing around the forest, along the treetops, I figured something big must've happened to them. After all, AeroVeedramon, though not a Mega, was rather huge, and HerculesKabuterrimon made him look small. And there was Plesiomon and Phoenixmon too. All of these digimon were gigantic but I couldn't see them anywhere. If Gennai's temple was as vital to the outcome of this ongoing war as Gennai implied it was, then where were our digimon? As the new crest bearers, would it not be better for _them_ to be called to the temple?

And Gummymon and Kokomon were…well, _Gummymon and Kokomon_! Why were they in their in-training forms? They were the ones I _never_ would have thought this would happen for. Well, it's not like I spent an abnormal amount of time wondering which of our digimon was most likely to revert back to their in-training level. So I spent absolutely zero time doing that. But it didn't add up. Their crests were destiny and miracles. There was no possible way for their crests not to work. I mean, Patamon would never lose hope or whatever, but Gummymon and Kokomon simply were not _able_ to lose destiny and miracles. It was like a power of the universe, and unless it just decided they weren't worthy…

No. I was going to blame the Dark Ocean's influence on the Digital World for this happenstance. Maybe being subjected to the Dark Ocean for so long opened them up for depression or something. And being depressed made it hard to keep their mega forms…?

I didn't really think that made any sense, but I couldn't come up with anything more concrete than that.

"How much longer are we going to be walking?" I heard Hikari ask Willis.

"I don't know," he said. "But the longer we travel the more I think you're right. He's only got about an hour left of allegiance from me. I don't want to let him lead us like mindless puppets."

"He can't," Hikari said. "He doesn't know who he's dealing with. Not really, anyway. We've grown so much since we first arrived, and I don't think he's taken that into account at all. He thinks we're still mindless children who will do whatever he tells us without question."

I had never heard Hikari be so…negative before. I hoped the Dark Ocean wasn't affecting her like it was Gummymon and Kokomon…and possibly Kurayami. She seemed to flinch away from any and all pieces of the Dark Ocean, and was slowly getting closer to Hikari with every minute. It seemed to be an unconscious decision on her part. She didn't even realize it. She was staring emotionless into the trees, following everyone else without acknowledging it.

But what was worse, was that Hikari and Willis' conversation seemed to strike a chord with me. It really did seem like Gennai took us for snivelling children that could be bossed around with no rhyme or reason.

Except he _did_ have reasons.

They just didn't add up.

He wanted us out of the Digital World, because he didn't want to risk the balance of the place. But it was already as far out of whack as it could get. It was filled with the Dark Ocean! He didn't want us to fulfill the mission the Digital World seemed to give us, because it was 'under control'. But he and his men had been fighting this war for three years, but if anything, I guessed it had gotten worse.

Why was he being so stubborn?

And if he truly thought of us as ignorant children, was he just stringing us along, hoping to distract us for the entire twenty-four hour visit?

"Hey, Gennai," I called to him loudly. He didn't stop walking, nor did he turn around. The only reason I knew he'd even heard me was because of his "Yes?"

"How much longer until we get to this Digital-monk Temple thing?"

"The Temple is a way's away yet," he said as the trees finally gave way to the openness once again. I allowed myself a moment of peace, as the suffocation of the trees was gone. Looking around, I realized we were at the base of that mountain from earlier. It was a lot bigger looking from its base…

"We must make our way over the mountain if we wish to reach the Temple," Gennai said simply.

"Why don't we just walk around it, if the Temple is on the other side?" Mimi asked with an eyebrow raised. She clearly thought the same way Hikari and Willis—and to an extent, myself—thought.

Climbing the mountain _would_ waste a lot of our limited time…

"We mustn't," Gennai said sharply. "It is far safer to scale the mountain."

"Yeah," Taichi scoffed. "Because falling down the mountain would be a ton of fun."

I looked up at the mountain, and suddenly felt myself agreeing with Taichi too. There_ was_ a trail to follow, but it looked only wide enough for Gummymon or Kokomon to walk by safely. I didn't want to think about falling, but it was a definite possibility.

"There are many enemies that call this area home," he explained, his eyes shifting nervously from side to side—as if he was trying to convince us of the danger. "It is too risky for me to lead you through enemy territory. We must climb the mountain. Due to our enemies' oceanic tendencies, the mountain has never been infiltrated by them. The do not wish to be in such open air, far from their source of power, the Dark Ocean water. The mountain has not been affected by the Dark Ocean, however, so they do not fare well there. They avoid climbing it. It is the _only_ safe route to the Temple."

"If it was such a dangerous journey, why'd you even make us come?" I had to ask.

"The Temple is the best place for you," Gennai said firmly, making it clear he expected no opposition to that. Mimi, however didn't hear it—or maybe she just didn't care.

"Because you said it is, right? I'm thinking the mountain is probably safer than your temple. I'm thinking that if I went off on my own I'd be safer than I am with you. We were already attacked once, and you're leading us into dangerous enemy territory. I'm not sure whether I want to believe you or not," she said. "I _want_ to find Rosemon or Palmon or whoever she is right now. I want to say hello, and catch up on what all we missed. I want to go and get the others so they can enjoy our twenty-four hour visit, and I want you to start acting like the Gennai I remember instead of the Jerk-nai you've become."

"War changes people," Gennai said simply.

"And it's your fault that you had to fight it alone!" Taichi shouted before Mimi—who looked very close to doing just that—could start up again. "You sent us away."

"I had to," he said. "It needed to be done. I didn't wish to be the bearer of bad news for a second time."

"No?" Mimi said. "You just wanted to kick us out so the Digital World could fall apart again. Gotta keep your job interesting…"

"I want to keep the Digital World safe," Gennai said, sending a glare in her direction. "It is, however, a very difficult journey ahead of us. It would be safer, if we take the time now to ready a camp site for the night—"

"Stop right there," Willis and Hikari said at the same time.

"We aren't wasting any more time on this," Willis said.

"By the time we made a camp safe enough in this 'infested enemy territory', we'd be nearly to the top of the mountain. It doesn't look big, compared to Infinity Mountain, anyway," Hikari continued.

"I believe Gennai might be on to something." The voice was dull, lifeless, but not unfamiliar. I turned to look at Kurayami in surprise. "He is the only one who knows how it is in the Digital World these days. I trust his judgement."

I stared at her in disbelief.

But she didn't have a digimon anymore, no one she desperately needed to see, like the rest of us. It wasn't fair for her to force us to comply with Gennai's wishes, I decided, for that very reason.

"I'm with Hikari and Willis," I said. "Either you bring us up the mountain, or we're climbing it ourselves."

"Yeah," Mimi and Taichi agreed quickly. Takeru nodded, but I could see him trying not to send a glare in Gennai's direction.

Michael and Meiyomon seemed rather neutral about the whole thing. I figured Meiyomon just didn't care what we did, so long as we were in the Digital World—his home. I'd really come to think of him as Iori's little brother. It was weird to see him in his natural habitat, bouncing happily as we came to a decision. He looked around the place in wonder, not seeming to mind that the Dark Ocean was taking over everywhere. He was _that_ happy to be back.

It never occurred to me that over those last three years, _he_ was the one that had to sacrifice the most—and Otamamon I supposed. We just left behind a place that made our wildest adventures come alive, and the greatest friends in either world. He left his home, the only home he'd ever known. He had no one else, because he'd given up his crest to allow us to win. We'd killed his only family in order to get our crests back.

"The votes do not favour my opinion," Gennai said strangely. "We must, then, press on."

"Yay," Kurayami said sarcastically. Her eyes were shifting into the shadows the woods around the mountain's base. She was searching for something. What it was, I couldn't be certain. I vowed to keep a closer eye on her.

"Excellent," Willis and Mimi said victoriously.

I smiled, but decided we'd wasted enough time with the debate.

Unfortunately for our leadership conversation, Taichi thought the same thing.

"Let's go then," Taichi said, just as I announce "Lead the way Gennai!"

We scowled at each other, and started the unspoken competition of getting to the mountain first. We weren't running, but we were close. Mimi, Michael, and Meiyomon were quick to run after us, laughing all the way. Takeru was a little more reserved, most likely because Willis and Hikari—who were suspiciously holding hands (I thought I'd have to talk to Willis about that…Hikari was like a second sister to me)—were lagging behind a bit. He wasn't very gracious about the whole situation. If Hikari didn't want him, and chose Willis—though I suspected that she hadn't really made any sort of decision—he should be happy for her. I know I was in his place once. I hated him very much from the get-go. Unlike him, I was very vocal about the affections I held for Hikari. I was also very open about how much I disliked him. I glared, I complained, I pushed him aside so I could be by her, I insulted him, refrained from actually using his name…the difference was that she understood why I did all of that. She _knew_ I was jealous, because she knew I liked her.

She didn't know Takeru liked her, not for certain. Hikari was a smart girl, I was sure she suspected it. But he hadn't told her. That of course, made his jealous behaviour come across as him distancing himself from her, at the same time as becoming overbearing.

She complained about his mixed behaviour to me often enough, and I was sympathetic. Not so much at first, since I still fancied myself in love with her and all. I still do love her. It's just changed over the last three years. It was how I felt about Jun—maybe a little fonder than that, because Jun can't stand hanging out with me and Hikari…well…she hadn't said the same, so I took it as approval.

I waited at the path's start, wanting to make sure everyone was present, while Taichi led the group up the twisting path.

Mimi and Meiyomon walked hand in hand. My guess was that Meiyomon—the powerful little digimon that he was—was keeping Mimi's balance, as the two followed behind Michael and Gennai. Gennai and Michael were participating in a very active conversation that made me once again question Michael's presence in our group of friends. He wasn't even loyal to Mimi—his best friend—how could he be in cahoots with _Gennai_? Taichi, I noticed was actually in front of them, tossing his own remarks into the conversation here and there, but he didn't seem to be as excited as Michael was about it.

"This is so stupid," Kurayami grumbled, letting Willis and Hikari start their trek up the mountain.

"How so?" I asked defensively. It _was_ my idea after all.

"We don't know how long it will take to climb the mountain," she said. "Night could fall before we reach the top. It's much too dangerous to climb at night."

"It won't take that long. Look, they're already a good way up," I said pointing to Taichi, Michael and Gennai, who were indeed making excellent progress. I saw Gennai wince every once and awhile though, as he rested his arm against a rock to help keep his balance. I was thrilled that Hikari wasn't hurt, but it was hard to keep my anger when I knew it was only because Gennai was kind enough to take her injury as his own.

"We should probably catch up," I commented.

"You go," she said in that same dull voice. Her voice matched the forest actually. It reminded me of the Dark Ocean. "I have someone I have to find."

Right, I thought. Her _mother_. I felt bad for thinking she didn't care what we did with our time. She wanted her mother back.

"We can look for her later," I told her.

"I will be going now," she said, glancing up to the others for only a second, before her eyes became as lifeless as her voice. "Good-bye."

Her voice sent a shiver down my spine as she walked passed me.

It was a moment before I could think straight again. I turned to call after her, only to find her already at the edge of the trees.

"Kurayami, wait!" I called, running after her. "Where are you going?"

She turned to look at me, her irises now as black as her pupils.

"Where I will make a difference," she said eerily. I shook off the shudder, and grabbed her shoulders so she couldn't run off.

"You make a difference here," I promised her. "You're a part of the group, a valuable part. You don't have to leave to find a purpose. We need you here. _I_ need you here, if you don't believe that the others do."

Her eyes met mine, and immediately took away my surroundings. There were no trees, there was no mountain, there was no Daisuke. The others didn't exist either. There was just her.

A male's voice came out of her mouth this time.

"I need you to join me, Daisuke," the voice said.

"Why?" I asked, though I couldn't be sure what it was talking about.

"We need a leader. A strong leader," the voice continued, as though I hadn't spoken.

"I'm not sure—" I started, only to be interrupted and ignored again.

"You will make all of the difference," the voice said.

The voice was strong, powerful, and it wanted me. It wanted me to lead. I knew I was the better leader. Who cared that I didn't know who was talking to me. Nothing seemed to matter. It was as though as strange calmness spread over me, and I was going to do whatever the voice wanted me to.

"Will you join me in my quest?"

"I will."

_**Yuuko:**_

I found myself knocking on the door to the Hida's apartment with Susumu and Yoshie waiting impatiently for Fumiko to open the door and reveal to us our children. It was late now, the sun was nearly down and I felt rude for being so upfront, but my children's lives could have been in danger.

Finally the door was pulled open and Chikara, a small old man smiled out as us. "Can I help you all?"

"Are our children here?" I asked immediately, cutting right to the chase.

"No thank you." He said grinning toothily.

He tried to close the door but Susumu stopped the door and said, "Sorry, perhaps you misunderstood? Our children are missing. Where are they?" he was speaking loudly and getting to his 'angry place' so I placed my hand on his shoulder and gave him my 'calm down right now' look.

"Who?" Chikara asked.

"Taichi?" I tried, "Hikari, Daisuke, Koushiro?"

"I learned Tai-chi once." He said smiling.

"No—my son!" I tried once again, "My son Taichi Yagami!"

A woman suddenly appeared in the doorway, gently pushing the old man aside. She was older than she had been the last time I saw her, but she still had the same smile on her face. "I'm sorry, he's been having hearing problems. Can I help you?"

"Our children are missing!" Yoshie said quickly, "Do you have any idea where they might have gone?"

Fumikonodded and led us into her home and closed the door behind us. "Wait here a moment." She said as she hurried off through an open doorway. Chikara smiled at us from a chair in the kitchen as Fumiko returned with a piece of paper in hand. She thrust it into my hands, and Yoshie and Susumu crowded around me to read it.

_Dear Mrs new Mom,_ the note said in neatly printed writing. _Iori and I will be gone for a while. Apparently I finally get to go home... I know you're not here... and I might not get to say goodbye, but I love you and will miss you! Thank you so much for being my Mom! And... I wish I could wait for you... but I can't. We're busy saving the world!_

_Love you! Meiyo._

"Where is... home?" I asked slowly.

"The Digital World." I looked to Yoshie and then to Susumu, and then everything went black as I passed out.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Takeru is next. What happens when they finally reach the Temple? Find out soon!


	17. Conditionally

**Y/N: **I'm Natsuni, and I love being her! I'm sick again…and I totally was singing that line… But I enjoyed reading Takeru's part, and being a character all of our own creation. It was a fun new experience, and I can't wait to be her again, so that I can expand on her. I wanted to thank the people that review almost every chapter. We've never thanked you all enough before, and we have to say "Wow" to JamyMashima91 for guessing that Momoe was pregnant, long before the reveal. Great guessing. :)

**U/N:** Uhm… this is TK! I WROTE THIS! I was excited about this! And still but it's not that good! I think it's kind of rushed! But I still like it! AND IT WAS FUN! ~I said this like a dinosaur outloud while writing it. RAWWWRR! :D  
but in all seriousness… it was supposed to go up yesterday, but my sister didn't have Natsuni done, I know, again her fault. Sorry about all the waiting you have to do. I'll try my best to keep it going but I can only do so much…. Enjoy :D And HOPEFULLY- notice it's only hopefully, the next chapter will be up on Wednesday… I guess tomorrow. …. Yeah.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 17: Conditionally**

_**Takeru:**_

I was sick of walking up the mountain. I was sick of listening to Gennai and I was sick of Willis not leaving Hikari's side. I was sick of Kurayami's depression, I was sick of Mimi's short temper, and Meiyomon's obsession with blowing things up, and I was sick of Michael walking around with that baseball bat like he owned the place.

But I was still happier than I had been in three full years.

I was back in the Digital World! And sure, heading in the very next day would have been more dramatic for sentimental reasons, the first of August being the day that we entered the Digital World for the first time... but I wasn't picky! I was here! I was home!

I found myself saying that quite often... that I was home. But I wasn't. This wasn't my home—so why did I think of it that way? Well... that wasn't important. What _was _important was that I was in the Digital World, and no matter how grey or boring it looked to the others it was still colourful and full of magic to me. But I couldn't deny that I would have been happier if it was its old self instead of fusing with the Dark Ocean.

It upset me to realize that Hikari, who once depended so much on me, and had literally called to me from another dimension, was currently using Willis as a hand rail as we hurried down the mountain as fast as we could. But I couldn't blame her... I'd been an awful friend to her lately. Avoiding her, and glaring at her new friend and not accepting that she needed space...

The clouds in the sky were almost black now and they were casting shadows so dark that I could almost not see where I was going. I knew it wasn't yet time to sleep—sundown at the latest, but for some reason everything was so dark and gloomy, and by the look on Gennai's face I gathered that this was normal for the Digital World now.

Speaking of Gennai, why was everyone freaking out at him? I mean, he was just under so much pressure and he probably knows his decision to make us leave was the wrong one, and so he likely put all the blame on himself. I wish the others would see that, even if he was being a total jerk.

None of the others seemed to notice me. Gennai and I had talked a bit back there, but no one else here was paying any mind to me at all. I missed Miyako, and Yamato, and even Sora and Ken... at least they talked to me sometimes, everyone here was just in their own world, or paired up with someone else.

Taichi was pressing ahead, further than the rest of us, and I could visualize the look of determination perfectly in my mind. He was trying so hard to win back Hikari's affection but she was doing nothing more than talking to Willis who was laughing along with her with every word she said... And then there was Michael and Gennai being all... whatever Michael and Gennai were like when they were together... Daisuke was—not... there.

I looked back, over my shoulder to be sure he wasn't just lagging behind. I slowly turned back to the others and counted heads, noticing that we were almost at the base of the mountain.

"Hey, Mimi!" I hissed.

She turned toward me, a smile on her face. "Yeah?"

"Where is Daisuke?" I asked her without a moment's hesitation.

She looked around, releasing Meyiomon's hand and then finally she turned back to me. "I don't know." She looked worried, but her voice sounded calmer than usual as if she was trying not to panic. "And Kurayami is gone too."

Both of us turned to the others and said loudly "Gennai!"

He stopped and turned to us sensing the panic in our voices. "What is it?" He asked, equally as worried.

"Daisuke and Kurayami are gone!" Mimi growled, "If you hadn't been forcing us to go to this stupid temple we wouldn't have lost them!"

"What do you mean?" Gennai asked, at first I thought he was confused about Mimi accusing him of forcing us to follow him, but then he said, "Where did he go?"

"I don't know!" Mimi cried out. I could tell she was just yelling because she was scared, but it was still a little much.

"I saw them in the trees." Came a small voice. We all turned toward Meiyomon who was smiling up at us. "The girl lead the funny one into the trees a while back... and then I saw them walk off."

"What's she doing to him?" Michael's voice came quickly, accusing Kurayami instantly.

"I doubt she did anything to him." Willis interjected. "I think that they may have gone off in search of their digimon." He looked to Hikari and said, "Or her mother."

I scowled at him but turned to everyone else, other than Taichi of course who was waiting for us up ahead, at the base of the mountain. "I hate to admit it but I agree with Willis. They'll be fine." Willis gave me a look of total confusion as if he didn't understand why I hated agreeing with him. For a genius he was really stupid.

The others seemed a little on edge but they all slowly nodded.

"We should go look for them though." Mimi said slowly. "It's not safe, right?"

"That is correct." Gennai said with a nod. "It is dangerous, but our best course of action is to get to the temple first, then we will look for the two lost ones."

Willis rolled his eyes, "There you go again about this temple. Does it really even exist?"

Gennai nodded. "It is close."

"You've been saying that for a while." Hikari pointed out. "How 'close' is it exactly?"

Gennai pointed toward Taichi and shrugged his shoulders, "I suppose you'll have to follow me and find out, now won't you."

Gennai turned and walked off the direction we had been going, and Michael was instantly following him. I looked to the others and absorbed their fear and confusion about where Daisuke had gone and whether or not he was okay... I decided that I would push that from my mind because Daisuke was strong and a good leader. He'd be safe with or without a digimon partner to save him from any impending danger. I pushed forward, following after Gennai and Michael who were both almost caught up to Taichi already. I looked over my shoulder and saw the others slowly following.

I heard Gummymon and Kokomon laughing and talking in whispered tones, and I couldn't help but smile. As much as I disliked every part of Willis I was so happy for him that he had found his digimon. I figured that I should have been jealous... but I wasn't. I wanted everyone to be happy—I wanted everyone to see their digimon again... and if it meant that I would have to wait to see Patamon I would still help them. We were all in the same position, and I knew how much they all wanted their friends back...

"So where are we heading next?" I heard Taichi ask in front of us. He looked confused and as I looked around I couldn't blame him. The path we were following was split into two paths, one that continued leading away from the mountain into a desert and one that lead into the trees. Between the two paths there were tall shrubs.

Gennai didn't answer right away and waited until the others had caught up and then he turned sharply toward the tall bushes and pulled them aside. Instantly light seemed to pour from the gap in the leaves and I found myself shielding my eyes quickly before slowly peeking through and gasping. There was a hill that lead straight down to a golden bridge through the leaves, and just across the bridge, which was placed over a large canyon was a tall stone building that reminded me of a castle, and better yet, there was even a tall tower with a blue flag on the top. The perfect place to hide the princess... why did everyone always think that no one would find them there... if there's a tower, then that's obviously where everything is hidden. There was beautiful mist floating around the 'Temple' and birds flying about. It looked… majestic. But it was not much of a temple if you asked me... it looked like Gennai had just moved the bushes which revealed a warp in time...

"The Temple!" Willis gasped in disbelief. I looked over my shoulder as he and Hikari shared looks of confusion.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Mimi asked.

"Let's go!" Taichi smiled, as he became the first to take the leap and dive through the bushes. Mimi and Meyiomon seemed to be pulling each other through next and soon Michael and Hikari had gone through. Gennai and Willis were holding the branches on either side and as I walked through Willis smiled at me. I figured that if he was going to be Hikari's new best friend the least I could do was try to like him. At least a little bit. So I smiled feebly back as he followed me through. Gennai was last, and by the time the three of us were through the others were already running across the bridge in excitement.

I rushed after them with Willis next to me until we caught up to Hikari who was walking quickly, but probably still too weak to run with the rest of us. I was a little annoyed that Hikari didn't even take notice of me but instead smiled at Willis and started walking with a little more of a hop in each step. I looked over the edge of the bridge that had silver bars acting as railings and smiled at the misty river below. It was really quite beautiful. This was like the Digital World I knew and loved. I looked toward the others and saw that there were two men standing on either side of the large silver and golden door at the end of the bridge, each wearing a long white cloak. Before we had even caught up with the others we heard Mimi arguing with one of the guards.

"But he is _right _there!" She insisted. "Just let us in!"

"We can't be sure he is not an impostor." The man said.

"Gennai said that he would never again allow the digidestined back into the Digital World." The other man said, "He said it was too dangerous for them."

"Well we _are_ them." Taichi insisted, "So just step aside and—"

"It's alright." A loud clear voice from behind me said. I jumped a little and turned around to see Gennai staring directly at the man Mimi was yelling at. The men instantly backed off a little and turned, each grabbing a thick golden chain. Slowly they pulled the chain and the door swung open with the sound of clanking metal. Again, the light that poured onto us was nearly blinding but I didn't look away this time, I was too excited to see what was in front of us.

I was the first to push through everyone and jump into the temple. I had thought that it would be more spectacular but it just looked like a busy medieval market place. There were digimon moving around, talking as if nothing was wrong with their world... it was exactly how I remembered the Digital World! Colourful, happy and... Altogether a magical place! I did also notice that amongst the digimon more of Gennai's people were roaming around as if they were living the same lives as the digimon themselves.

I looked over my shoulder happily and smiled even brighter at the smile that was spreading over the others faces. Both Taichi and Hikari had smiled so little lately, besides when Willis was flirting with Hikari, that it was nice and refreshing to see them finally be happy.

"And this is the Temple," Gennai said, motioning to the area around him. "You are welcome here for another twelve hours. And then you will be leaving this world for good. Forever."

"I'm ignoring the last half of that statement." Mimi said with a smile, "I'm actually really happy you took us here! Thank you Gennai!" Mimi actually wrapped her arms tightly around Gennai's waist and smiled at him before running off into the crowds of digimon with Meiyomon excitedly running after her. Michael nervously looked around before heading into the throng as well. I thought instantly about Daisuke and how much he would have enjoyed this place—there were food vendor's everywhere... why did he have to leave? I felt bad for enjoying the fun without him and the others... but at the same time, this place was awesome.

Somehow the black clouds were not above the temple, and instead the sky was bright and blue, the sun was still dark but it was letting off a friendly orange light as it sunk into the horizon and the very same light was reflecting off of the shimmering golden and silver arches, bridges and pathways, lighting the place up like some sort of beautiful autumn dance party.

"Is that a real restaurant?" Willis asked, a hand on his stomach. "Like... can I eat there?" Gennai had barely nodded before Willis was off. Hikari was following him with a smile on her face. I tried to step away from Taichi and Gennai but before I could Gennai had spoken.

"Taichi I wish for you to come with me for a moment." He said with a very blank tone to his voice, "There is something I want to show you. And you too Takeru, you'd best come as well."

I looked over my shoulder at Hikari and Willis looking at a menu in the shop window and then turned to Gennai and nodded. "Sure." Taichi nodded instantly as well, and the two of us looked to each other causing us both to miss the fact that Gennai had set off.

"Hey!" Taichi called stepping forward quickly to follow Gennai. I hurried after them as fast as I could go, and I could tell Taichi was struggling to catch up as well. Fortunately though Gennai was tall and easy to keep track of even within a group of people who looked exactly like him. He had many more worry lines on his face, and he just came across more... stressed and angry than the others.

He led us through the town and finally up a stone staircase that lead around a short round tower made of stone and then to a tall wooden door. He turned sharply as we came up to him. As he spun I lost my balance and almost fell off of the stairs but Taichi caught me and then we looked to Gennai.

He motioned to the door. "After you." He said simply.

Taichi nodded and pushed the door open, stepping into the room without a moment's hesitation. I stepped in quickly and felt Gennai follow behind me. The first thing I noticed was a rather gaudy golden long table that I assumed was supposed to be regal, and then, as the room hushed up to a complete dead silence I noticed digimon and Gennai's people sitting all around the table, and then finally at the end of the table, sitting on one of two tall silver chairs, sat a smiling pink ball.

"Taichi?" It asked slowly. Then it literally flew across the table, bouncing excitedly and then jumping into Taichi's arms. Taichi looked both happy and very confused. I could tell he didn't know what emotion to feel as he stared down at Koromon. Slowly he smiled at the ball who was practically crying and then sighed.

"Hey buddy," He said croakily, "How have you been?"

I suddenly realized that Gennai had asked me to come here as well. I turned to the second tall silver chair next to Koromon's hopeful, and then felt a slight pang when I found that it was not Tokomon who sat there. But I couldn't help smiling as the digimon grinned at me before following Koromon's lead and bouncing toward me.

He leapt into my arms and I smiled at him. "Hey Tsunomon!" I smiled at the orange fuzzy ball in my arms. I could tell he was happy to see me, but a little disappointed that I wasn't my brother... and I couldn't deny that I knew how he felt. I hugged him tighter for a moment and then held him up. "What's going on here?"

"Koromon and I are leading the resistance!" Tsunomon smiled.

"As in-trainings?" Taichi and I asked, holding in our laughter as we looked around the room at all the large, muscular men and digimon.

"Yup!" Koromon smiled, "With Gennai's help!"

"Speaking of which..." Gennai said, stepping away from the door finally. "Not to break up this reunion, but... what have we decided on?"

"Well..." Tsunomon said slowly, "To but it simply..."

"The enemy is coming to kill us all." Koromon cut in, realizing Tsunomon was uncomfortable breaking the news to Gennai.

"What?" He gasped. "What do you mean? He's coming? Both?"

The room was silent until finally Tsunomon spoke up. "Actually..." he cleared his throat, "We aren't sure."

"Well figure it out." Gennai shot. "I have to go!"

"Go where?" Koromon asked.

"There are some rogue digidestined out in the forest. It's not safe for them. I will return shortly whether I find them or not." Gennai explained. "I trust the two of you to make action plans. If the city falls and the resistance fails it's on your heads."

"Which sucks," Taichi said, "Because that's all they are... is heads." He slowed down at the end of the joke as he realized how terrible it was.

"You sound like Daisuke..." I pointed out.

"Where is Daisuke?" Koromon asked.

"Running loose in the forest." Gennai, Taichi and I said together.

"Should have guessed." Tsunomon giggled. "Alright, let's get this plan moving!"

"Do I get to stay?" Taichi asked, Gennai gave him a look that said 'No way in _hell_ are you staying in this meeting' but Taichi wouldn't have it. "He's my digimon and if he is planning a battle then I can help him! I know how his little brain works... I can be of value to you."

"Not without your digivice. You can't help." Gennai tried. "And I've hidden that where no one will find it."

"He stays." Koromon shot.

"Fine." Gennai agreed without too much thought. "But Takeru, you have no excuse. You must leave."

I nodded slowly and set Tsunomon down on the table and smiled at him. "I'll bring my brother to you. I promise." I smiled at him. I turned and left before he responded because I didn't really need him to. I knew how happy he was just by the look on his face. I walked right past Gennai and out onto the stairs. The door to the council office was high and I could see a great deal of the city. I smiled to myself as I saw my friends all scattered about. Mimi looking at some sort of animal skin bag from a stand in the main market place with Mieyomon spinning in circles just behind her. Michael was sitting on the roof of a nearby building staring up at the sky with a smile on his face, Gummymon and Kokomon were screaming at random digimon, and although I couldn't see Willis, I didn't care because Hikari was staring through a window of a building all by herself.

Before I could even think twice about what I was doing I found myself running down the steps three at a time and pushing through the crowd of people. I slid to a stop about ten feet behind her to catch my breath. Slowly I stepped forward and stood next to her. She looked up at me and smiled slightly before looking back at the window.

I realized just then how much our friendship had suffered over the past few years... and it wasn't Willis' fault at all. It was my fault... all _my_ fault.

I looked through the window sadly and saw that it was a class of small digimon all sitting in rows watching their teacher write on a large chalk board. It was really cute and I could tell why she was watching them. I took notice that of all digimon, Ogremon was the teacher... it made me laugh a little.

"What's so funny?" Hikari asked without looking away from the window.

"That teacher really _does_ look like Ogremon." I said flatly. She slowly turned to look at me, realizing that I was referring to the time that we had been reunited right before we returned to the Digital World to defeat the Digimon Kaiser. She slowly started to smile and then she threw her hand over her mouth but was unable to stop herself as she began to laugh loudly. I laughed with her. The two of us just watched the class learn, giggling every time Ogremon did... anything at all, until suddenly...

"What's so funny?" We both turned to see Willis.

"Nothing." We said together.

"Oh..." He said slowly, "Well hey! Listen, I found this really cool street vending group of digimon—they're really amazing! You two want to come?"

"No—I'd better go." I said quickly, trying to escape from being the third wheel without thought. But the fact that Willis was inviting me, out of sympathy or not, made me like him even more. "I'll just... go find Michael or something."

"You're sure?" Hikari asked.

I nodded, "You two have fun though." I turned and walked started to walk off, but I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

"Wait!" I turned to see Hikari. She smiled at me and then turned back to Willis, "Willis... can it wait? Takeru and I... have a lot of catching up to do."

I smiled at her as she threw her arms around me. I looked to Willis who was smiling at us, and I couldn't help but smile back as I wrapped my arms around my best friend.

Willis nodded and turned away, walking off, seemingly unaffected by Hikari choosing me over him. He really was a good person... I suddenly hated myself for disliking him so intently for no reason at all other than pure jealousy. But that didn't matter. I still had a lot of time to work on my friendship with him.

"I missed you." I said without thought. Hikari pulled away and looked at me. Her eyes were watery, "I feel like such a terrible person for leaving you... for just abandoning you in literally the worst time of your life... I'm so sorry..."

"I forgive you." She said and then hugged me one more time. "Conditionally." She said in my ear.

"Oh?" I asked her, eyebrows raised as she pulled away from me. "And what condition might that be?"

"I will forgive you if you promise to be my best friend again." She said slowly.

I laughed, which I realized may have come across rude so I added, "I promise!" And she hugged me once more. I didn't ever want to let go, but I knew holding on for too long would just be awkward so I let go and she stepped back. "How are you, by the way? Are you still... sick?"

She shook her head. "I still have an awful taste in my mouth, but I feel like a million dollars! And more!" I smiled at her, but said nothing more. "So... I heard that Gennai wanted to talk to you and Taichi."

I nodded, "Yeah he brought us to Tsunomon and Koromon..."

"That's wonderful!" She said smiling, "I'm happy for Taichi!" but I could tell she was hoping that I would continue and add that Gatomon was here as well... "Where are they?"

"They're planning for the upcoming attack..." I said bluntly. Her expression was shocked, as it should have been. "I just mean that someone is coming to attack this temple... I want to help them but I don't know how! I don't even have my digimon! And even those who do have their digimon won't be much help without their digivices..."

"So you know the solution then don't you?" Hikari asked smiling.

"What's that?"

"We get the digivices back!" She was really excited. "It'll be a way for you to help even though you don't have your digivice!"

"That's a great idea Hikari," I said smiling, but slowly the reality sunk in, "This place is huge, how will we ever find them?"

"Well... we just have to think!" She said sharply, putting on that adorable thinking face of hers that I remembered so well. "Where do people always hide things?"

Slowly we both looked up and stared at the tall tower with the blue flag and then back to each other with a smile on our faces.

"I'll race you to the top." Hikari said brushing her chocolate hair out of her face as she located the door at the base of the tower.

"You're on!" I smiled, but before I could even register that she was ready to go, she was gone, running toward the tower. I watched her go for a moment and then set off quickly, following her to the tower, pushing my way through the digimon. I finally emerged from the crowd to see Hikari throw open the tall wooden door attached to the large stone tower and jump inside. She didn't close the door so as I slipped through only seconds after her I shut the door smoothly and quietly to make sure no one knew what we were doing. I turned around and saw a set of stone stairs that spun around the entire tower to the top. I felt exhausted just looking at them, but Hikari was giggling to herself as she ran freely which I realized probably hadn't happened in... years. I followed her as fast as I could, but she seemed to be packed with so much energy for someone who had been on the verge of dying for so long.

As I ran I could have sworn I was going to die, but finally I reached the top where I found Hikari panting heavily, pacing back and forth on the stone landing at the top next to a large iron door.

"Woo!" She cheered, "I won!" She raised her hand, asking for a high five.

I laughed, and took a deep breath before slapping her hand weakly. "So... you t-think it's in there?" I asked her as sturdily as I could. She said nothing but nodded and then stepped forward and pushed the door open with all of her might. I could tell that it was heavy so I hurried toward the door and pushed with her. With both of us pushing the door was easily opened and the two of us stepped inside, smiles on our faces. The room had a giant pile of digivices in the center of the floor. But the room was so large and round that there was still so much extra space. The walls were covered in strange markings, and I noticed that the most intricate of them all was right at the top of the room, and it was just a series of triangles that I didn't understand. I made a mental note to draw it for Koushiro and see if he knew what it meant.

"Which ones are ours?" Hikari asked, staring at the pile. Before I had the chance to answer the pile seemed to explode as a set of digivices flew out the door behind us. I tried to keep track of how many left the room, but lost count after eight. And then slowly two floated toward us and we reached up and grabbed them. Why didn't the other digivices go? There was still a large pile in the room... perhaps only those digidestined who were in the same world received their digivices? But only eight of us had come in, and more than eight had left and two of them were still here, with us... did that mean the others were now in the Digital World also? And if so... why? What happened? Were they okay?

But that didn't matter at that moment because Hikari turned to me with a smile on her face. "I feel like a kid again." She smiled before throwing her arms around me once again. She pulled away quickly and said, "We have to get to the others. They'll need us if Dragomon is coming."

"How do you know that it's—?" I tried.

But she cut me off. "I just do."

_**Natsuni:**_

It hadn't occurred to me that Iori could have been telling the truth, not until I was literally ripped out of my home world and taken into some crazy, greying world entirely different from my own that was hidden behind a door that had been in the middle of the woods at a camp in the middle of nowhere.

When did my life become so complicated?

Oh yeah, that was when I met Iori, wasn't it…

The insane demon woman was flying through the air—without anywhere for the wires to attach too, which of course made believe that I truly wasn't in Odaiba anymore—over the trees and the lakes and deserts, heading towards the one thing in the distance that I really didn't want to go anywhere near.

There was what appeared to be a large black hole in the centre of a lake. The demon lady wasn't scared of it, and paid my screams no mind. She really wasn't very accommodating to her victims. I was pleased to see she was being tad gentler with Momoe than she was with me. But she'd stopped to pick up another passenger that she was balancing with her left arm…the arm that was supposed to be holding me.

"Where are we going?" Momoe asked, when the demon lady had dived straight into the hole, and we were surrounded by darkness.

The she-devil threw me to the ground, and I scrambled to my feet. I could only hope Momoe didn't get thrown too. I promised to take care of her the best I could. She didn't need this with the pregnancy after all. She looked ready to pop that baby out any second

"Silence," was the demanding response.

We didn't dare speak after her harsh voice. There was something in the way she glared at us that made me think she wouldn't hesitate to kill me.

I didn't want to die.

Not stuck in the dark, depressing hole in the ground—which to be honest looked more like a prison than a hole.

She roughly grabbed at my arm, before I could take even a step away from her. Momoe whimpered, and I could hear Noriko putting up a fuss down what appeared to be a hallway. I could see a glow from what I assumed to be her captor. She was fighting with him furiously, but he was giving better than he got. I heard her cry out in pain before I was tossed into a cage beside her.

"Natsuni?" she asked, squinting at me through the dimmed lighting.

Even in captivity, she said my name with distain.

I couldn't believe it.

I turned around just in time to catch Momoe before she could fall too far.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"I'm tired, I'm hot, I'm about to have a baby and I've been kidnapped," she ranted.

"Not alright then, sorry Ms. Inoue," I told her.

"Get something for the prisoners," the evil lady—perhaps a monster? A monster from my own personal horror movie. I really needed to watch fewer films… "We need them alive…for now. I'll take this one to the boss."

She strutted down the hallway, I could hear her long after I could see her, but she was drowned out by the clumsy scrambling of the cage's guard.

"Don't worry Ms. Inoue," I told her, much more confidently then I actually felt. "Mr Kido is coming for you, he told me so. And Mr Ishida and Iori Hida. They'll come for us. They know what's going on."

"You can't know that," she said through tears.

"Iori will come for_ me_, so you can get rid of your doubts," Noriko said in her stupid way. "And I suppose he'll want _her_ too."

"He'll want me anyway," I told Momoe, with a giggle.

"Ah," Momoe said. "This is the Noriko that I've heard so much about."

"I knew he loved me!" Noriko shouted happily.

"I said silence!" the she-devil's voice rang out again. Momoe clutched my arm, trying to protect both me and her baby, while I tried to push her behind me.

"I promised to take care of you until Mr Kido got here," I whispered to her. "I promised Iori and him. I won't break that promise, on my honour."

"Thank you," she whispered back.

"He loves me!" Noriko squealed quietly. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

There was a noise at the cage's door.

"What do you want?" I asked. My voice didn't waver nearly as much as I thought it would.

"Food," came the gruff answer. A plate with three buns and a tray with three bowls of soup were pushed towards us. "You eat now."

"Is it poisoned?" I asked, looking at the small portions.

"No poison," the voice said. "You eat now."

Noriko scrambled to grab her bun and soup, before moving back into the far corner of the room. I looked at the food, and pushed it all towards Momoe. "You eat it. You need it."

"It's yours too," she said.

"I'll be fine," I said. My mind couldn't help but pull out movie references, trying to figure out just how long I could survive by giving her my rations. I knew it would be best to trust in Iori, he would never let me down. I wouldn't die of starvation for awhile, and he'd have me rescued long before that could happen. If going hungry would protect Momoe and Mr Kido's baby, then that's what I was going to do.

I had to keep her safe.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Ken takes the reins, and we find out just what caused that explosion!


	18. Hook, Line and Sinker

**Y/N:** So, it hasn't been edited or anything, because my brother didn't believe I would be able to finish it tonight, before eleven, and left..or something. I don't know where he is. In any case, I kind of had fun with the whole Ken and Koushiro clashing that we touched on earlier. It was quite fun making fun of my favourite character, and making him out to be such a jerk. Usually, I make him out to be this amazing guy, just because he's my favourite, so Ken's picking on all of his flaws, and maybe even making up a few of his own… I hope you enjoy it, and if you want, leave a review?

**U/N: **This is ken's. I'm writing this authors note right after i finished writing Tatums part of this chapter. On Wednesday... but i have zero faith that my sister will get Ken's part done today. if she does, then enjoy this! :D if she doesn't, then i'm sorry for the wait, and enjoy it anyway. I haven't read this chapter yet obviously, so not much to say...  
review! :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 18: Hook, Line and Sinker**

_**Ken:**_

"Go horsie go!" Otamamon shouted happily, jumping into my arms. I smiled at him and let out a laugh. He was just too cute, cute enough even for me to not feel weird admitting it. And his lack of intelligence was fantastic. Not only did it make him seem like a baby at all times, it made you feel much smarter than you really are. Which was great for me, because it made me feel like the genius I used to be.

"You _would_ like Otamamon…" Koushiro grumbled.

I snorted. I couldn't understand why he didn't feel the same way about Otamamon's intelligence. He must've felt like a super genius or something compared to him. But…Koushiro always did hate having to explain himself to the average being. I could see how Otamamon's…stupidity for lack of a better term, could _possibly_ get on his nerves. But he was still way to mean to the little guy. He was the embodiment of everything that is digimon—well, the good ones anyway. I spent as much time around him as I could in the past three years. As much as I could without it seeming weird. He _did_ live with Daisuke's sister after all. And Daisuke wasn't even there, since he was living with Hikari. But the feeling I got when I was around Otamamon reminded me of everything I missed and loved about Wormmon.

But it wasn't the time for such musings.

We were running as fast as we could, pushing ourselves to our limits, to run _towards_ the explosion. It wasn't exactly what I'd call a good idea, but it was Miyako's idea, and I was going to support her without questioning it.

The fact that Yamato, Jou and Iori had already run off may have also played a small part in it. I didn't want the group to be split up. I'd wanted to stay at the doorway, but since that ship had sailed, I was going to go along with whatever Sora said. She was the leader.

Or, she was…

Miyako and Sora came running behind me, soon passing both Koushiro and myself. Miyako was a very excitable person while in the Digital World. She could do so many things that I wouldn't have thought humanly possible—then again, the entire Digital World didn't seem humanly possible—and Sora was a very athletic girl. Koushiro didn't stand a chance. I should have though…I was a soccer player the entire game was played by running around.

The thing that caught my eye though, was the pair of goggles glinting as they caught the dulled sunlight that were on top of Miyako's head. I supposed that meant she was our new leader. It struck me as strange for a moment, that Sora would give _Miyako_ the leadership, rather than Jou or Yamato, but I figured that Miyako was the one leading our current mission. Codename: Go get ourselves blown up.

"Has anyone actually thought of what we're going to do when we get there?" Koushiro asked loudly.

"Just…hide I guess," Sora called back. "Right Miyako?"

"As our new leader, I must say I concur," she said with a happy laugh.

"You've got your answer," Sora told him.

"Excellent," he said sarcastically. "Such a well thought through plan; nothing could possibly go wrong."

I agreed with him, but he could've been a little more…_encouraging_ about it. It was her first decision as leader.

"Shut up," Miyako said, and though she was ahead of me, I could picture her rolling her eyes and giving a cute smirk. "We're going for stealth here."

Not another word was said before we reached the explosion site. The crater that I was expecting wasn't there. Instead—as we were crouched in the bushes and tucked behind trees—we saw a large Kwuagamon. Whatever it was that he was attacking though, we couldn't see. The giant red digimon was growling at his prey.

Jou stepped on a twig, and it snapped very loudly. His eyes widened, Yamato flung his hand over Jou's mouth, and Iori pulled them back behind their bush.

Kwuagamon heard it. I was sure he did. The way he stopped growling, and turned his head just a touch to the left proved that. But whatever he was hunting held much more appeal to him. It was when he lunged, pincers snapping, that we saw what he was after.

Tokomon.

I don't know what came over me. It might have been that the Tokomon looked very familiar; it might have been some underlying instinct I'd obtained to rescue small digimon from monsters. Whatever it was, I did something incredibly stupid.

"Hey, big bad and ugly! Pick on someone your own size!" I shouted, stepping out from behind the tree I'd been using for cover.

Miyako grabbed my arm and pulled me back immediately, giving me a glare that I was _not_ sure I earned—I'd just saved an in-training digimon for goodness sakes. I winced when she tightened her grip, knowing that Kwuagamon was headed in our direction. I was a little tender after our run-in with LadyDevimon less than an hour before.

"Absolute foolishness," Koushiro said lowly, holding his laptop close and inching to the right, ready to run when Kwuagamon came at us. He too looked a little worse for wear. I wondered what exactly had happened to him and Sora on their search. Iori, Yamato and Jou didn't look like they'd had much trouble.

Sora and Yamato were hand in hand, leaning to the left, ready to bolt in that direction should the need arise—and arise it did. Kwuagamon took a heavy step in our direction. Koushiro did a sort of roll, before running in a crouch to the right, keeping his laptop close to him. Yamato nearly dragged Sora to the left, making much more noise than Koushiro did, though I figured that was the point. Iori and Jou also took off to the right, after waiting for Koushiro to reach a safer location.

I thought Koushiro was being rather cowardly, trying to find safety instead of rescuing our friend. Tokomon could have been killed! But I supposed he didn't want to risk himself, or his laptop, trying to fight in a battle while injured—a battle where he'd surely have to leave said laptop unattended…

But I couldn't dwell on Koushiro's characteristics. I had a giant red digimon to outsmart. I signaled to Miyako to wait for Kwuagamon to make his decision. Otamamon, for once, was quiet, knowing just how important this moment could be.

Kwuagamon looked left, then right, before flying towards Yamato and Sora on the left. Sora let out a rather loud scream, before tackling Yamato to the ground, and rolling under the cover of a bush. Kwuagamon, now prey-less, took off again, this time with Jou and Iori in his sights. The two boys shared a look, and split themselves up, tearing off in opposite directions, serving to confuse the red monster even further.

"Now," I whispered to Miyako and Otamamon.

I got a nod in return.

I handed Otamamon to Miyako. He'd come in handy if Kwuagamon spotted us—kind of…

Miyako and I took off running, sprinting really. We went as quickly as we could, while Kwuagamon was chasing Jou. A quick glance showed me that Iori was throwing rocks at the digimon trying to get him to chase him instead.

The two of us reached Tokomon—who was standing there wide-eyed. He hadn't been expecting us I surmised. _We_ hadn't been expecting to come either though.

I bent down and scooped him into my arms, and kept running straight ahead. We were quickly joined by Yamato and Sora, who'd gone and collected Koushiro. He'd managed to rip the cut on his shoulder open again, despite not really doing _anything. _It confused me, but I didn't really care enough to mule it over.

Kwuagamon let out a loud roar, as he took Iori's bait, and went after him. Jou looked at him for a moment, hesitating, before following through with their plan, and coming over to the rest of us.

"I feel bad leaving him out there alone," he said. "It's too dangerous."

"I can help!" Otamamon exclaimed.

"Sure you can," Koushiro drawled. "Kwuagamon's only a _champion_ and you're a single rookie."

"And me," Tokomon pointed out, understanding Koushiro's logic. "We'd get destroyed."

"And Iori will fare better?" Sora asked nervously.

We turned to look at their fight…only to find Kwuagamon searching frantically for his missing prey.

"I'll be fine," Iori said with an amused expression on his face. "I knew what I was doing."

"Quiet," Yamato said. "He'll hear us."

But it was too late. He'd already heard.

"Let's get going!" Miyako shrieked, clutching my hand tightly, while hugging Otamamon to her chest with her other arm.

"I know where we should go," Tokomon said. "It's a safe place. It's over there!"

He pointed to the right, so I took off running, leading the others.

"It's just there," he told me.

"Behind the tree?" I asked, coming face to face with a giant tree. But I needn't have asked. Koushiro—of course—recognized it immediately. Sora's eyes lit up at the sight of it as well. They didn't waste any time before shoving us _into_ the tree.

"It's a hologram or something," Sora explained. Koushiro didn't bother to correct her, so I figured it was a pretty safe bet.

"I'm curious," Koushiro commented.

"You always are," Sora said with a chuckle. Her laughter stopped short, when she saw the look he was giving her.

"Why is it that you are Tokomon right now?"

"That's a long story," Tokomon said

"I want to know what is wrong with the Digital World," Miyako added.

There was a loud roar from outside the tree. Miyako shifted closer to me, away from the 'wall'.

"That's part of the same story actually," Tokomon admitted. "It's not a great story. It kind of sucks actually…"

"Tell us," Jou suggested. His tone was kind, but I could tell he was impatient. He wanted to get to Momoe…immediately.

"Everything started off fine. We were all Megas, and we had the crests, and everything _seemed_ balanced," Tokomon started.

"But with Kurayami having the crest of darkness on Earth it couldn't truly reach that, and the world has started deteriorating?" Koushiro guessed.

"I suppose that could have been a part of it," Tokomon allowed.

I almost laughed, because Tokomon was just being kind to him, and didn't want to tell him his hypothesis was wrong. Koushiro scrunched his face up. It seemed he thought the same thing.

Tokomon continued though, in a whisper, so Kwuagamon couldn't hear him. "You left though, and we couldn't keep our hold on our Mega forms. It seemed that after you left, something was draining from us, and we weren't able to keep it up any longer. Of course, Gennai said we didn't really need to stay in our Mega forms to perform our new jobs, so we thought nothing of it. Not until Fanglongmon started making himself known.

"We didn't take care of him last time, and that was our biggest mistake. Ever."

"Gennai forgot about him too," Miyako said a little defensively. "He kicked us out before we had the chance."

"I'm not blaming you," Tokomon said quickly. "I'm telling the story. Dramatically."

"We don't need dramatics," Koushiro said, clutching his shoulder. I noticed he'd taken out his laptop, and was recording Tokomon's tale, word for word. "We need facts."

"And you'll get them," Tokomon said. "Fanglongmon is our biggest enemy. Gennai and his people lead the resistance against them. They fight every day, trying to rid the Digital World of this problem. But it's worse than just Fanglongmon. He found an ally, a digimon named Dragomon."

"D-dragomon?" I asked, my mind instantly flashing to the Dark Ocean, the world where my fears and despairs became reality. A world where I'd very nearly lost my mind.

"Yeah," Tokomon said. "The gateway between the Digital World and the Dark Ocean was left wide open. Now we have to face two of the biggest threats the Digital World has ever seen, and we don't have enough power to do it."

"Why are you In-Training though?" Yamato questioned. "You said without us you could only hold Ultimate…"

"We would have too, but Dragomon and Fanglongmon have developed a way to draw our strength. We can't get it back once it's gone, see? They got to us before we got the warning. By the time we realized what was happening, we were already at Champion, and Rookie wasn't far off. A few more days like this, and we'll reach Baby. We weren't strong enough anymore to do any damage. They were too smart, and we fell for their trap hook, line and sinker."

"It stands to reason, that you would not be able to call upon the crests in order to attain a higher source of power," Koushiro noted, having finished typing Tokomon's last comments.

"How so?" Iori asked, intrigued.

"The digivices have always been vital to attaining digi-volution in the past. Perhaps the absence of the digivice is the crux of the problem?" he said.

"Yeah," Sora said agreeing with him instantly. "_We_ fueled the digivices that allowed you to access your higher forms."

"And without us," I surmised. "You can't get that power back."

"Were you not listening to my observations?" Koushiro asked looking genuinely confused. "That is what I just said not even a minute ago."

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes as the others snickered at me. To distract myself from my embarrassment, I listened for Kwuagamon again, but didn't hear him. He must have moved on. Thank goodness.

"Is that it?" Jou asked. Despite his impatience, his intellectual side was kicking in, and he knew something big was missing in that story. "What happened next? Where are the others?"

"I don't know," Tokomon admitted softly. "We were separated after that. It's not hard to lose track of an In-Training during a battle, we're so small you see. I was with Nyaromon until a little while ago. LadyDevimon swooped down out of nowhere and just took her! Nyaromon couldn't defend herself, and I couldn't do anything to stop her from being taken."

"LadyDevimon?" Jou asked, his eyes wide.

"Did he have two girls with him?" Iori asked just as desperately.

"Yeah," Tokomon said, as though he'd just realized this fact. "A young one trying to take care of a big one. And I mean big! It was almost as if she'd eaten a Whaemon."

"Momoe," Jou said in a strangled whisper.

"She was pretty fat," Otamamon agreed.

Miyako hit him over the head. "Shut up, that was disrespectful. She's pregnant, not fat."

"I hope she's okay," Iori said softly.

"They will be," Sora said firmly. "All of them. The girls, the gang, and all the digimon. They have to be."

_**Tatum:**_

I knocked loudly on the large mansion door. Of course the owners didn't like to think of it as a mansion, but because of their genius son they'd managed to get so much of an income that no one had to actually get a job. I thought it was pretty rude really, living off their child's brain.

Anyway, it was really hot at that moment, which was funny because it had just been raining only moments ago, and the sun had pretty much dried me off. Suddenly the door was ripped open and a rather plump woman was standing there, looking down at me. I saw the hope disappear from her eyes as she stared at me. Her long blonde hair was pulled back making her face look tight in an attempt to hide her wrinkles. She stared down at me until I spoke.

"Is Michael here?" I asked her.

"Willis isn't even here." She replied, of course speaking of her son.

"What do you mean?" I asked her. "Where are they?"

"I... don't know." She said. "Willis left a note saying that they were going to Japan."

"Then that would be a good place to start looking wouldn't it?" I asked her a little snidely. I wasn't very pleased with Michaels' disappearance, although I couldn't blame him... we weren't dating anymore, but didn't he know that after the third week of not dating I always came back? It's not like I actually wanted to break up with him! I just liked the drama of it all. I know, it was stupid of me to do, but he was a theatre kid too. He understood the drama aspect of it all.

"Well he's probably just visiting Hikari again." She said with a smile.

"That wouldn't make sense." I told her, "Michael's gone too."

"Oh look at that." Mrs Kennedy said with a smile.

"No—stop." I looked over my shoulder and sighed. It was snowing. I turned back to Mrs Kennedy angrily, but then paused, "Snow?" I looked back again and watched as the snow fell. "Something is really wrong here..." The two of us stood and watched the snow for a while until my head started to hurt suddenly. I fell to my knees and grabbed it tightly until the pain subsided. As I looked up I gasped. The world around me had changed. There were no buildings, only trees. There were no cars, only rocks. And there were no more people... only digimon?

I gasped and blinked as the world shifted back again. Everything was fading in front of me, but the digimon stayed. I saw a Frigimon and a Monzemon arguing with one another. Slowly they faded as well like a bad television signal.

I turned to Mrs Kennedy, shocked and said, "We have to get to Japan. Right now."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **To be honest, I think Yamato is next, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. If it is, we'll be seeing the digivices make their debut, if not, I apologize…


	19. Saving Lights

**Y/N:** Woo-hoo, first time as another character this chapter, and I liked the interactions between the group in this chapter too. It was…I won't say _lighter_…but it was different than the last chapter, which was mostly informative. I hope you like it, and review it. :)

**U/N: **I'm sorry this chapter wasn't up sooner i was brainstorming and everything got confusing and i couldn't get the chapter right and i was planning the future chapters and cleaning my friends house and... GRAH. sorry... i'm sorry... enjoy it ... it's a little different, so just... yeah aha... review?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 19: Saving Lights**

_**Yamato:**_

I had thought that having Tokomon amongst us would lighten the mood... having not only something to connect me to Takeru, but also something to keep me going in search of Tsunomon. Something strong enough to keep me from falling into a pit of total depression... I only hoped that Tsunomon was okay. If he wasn't... then... well... I didn't know what I would do. I had to try to keep Tsunomon off my mind though because we were all marching through the forest now, keeping an eye out for Kwagamon or any other evil digimon for that matter.

We had waited in the holographic tree for a while, a couple of hours at the very least, but Tokomon eventually told us that it was okay to get out. I would have left before that, but it wasn't as if we were on some sort of time limit... Other than the ticking life line of Momoe and the other captives. I felt bad for Jou, and I wanted to sympathize with him, and of course I did to an extent, but I wasn't in the same position he was, and so it was a lot harder for me. Thankfully Iori knew what to say though—not that I'm saying that it's a good thing the crazy stalker girl and his film obsessed girlfriend were taken, but it gave Jou someone to talk to, and keep him busy.

Ken was holding Otamamon who was telling Ken all about some watermelon if I was hearing correctly. Miyako was leading the way, Taichi's goggles placed proudly on her head. I wanted to ask Sora why she gave them up but I didn't want to bother her so I just let it go and hoped that if she wanted to talk about it she would come to me. I was sort of happy though. It felt weird having her call herself Taisuke. It gave me weird mental images of myself dating not only Taichi, but Daisuke as well... so Sora was better. Just the way she normally was. She was walking with Koushiro anyway, talking to him in hushed tones. I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted her to leave him alone. And so I was walking alone, with Tokomon in my arms, breathing quietly. I was unwilling to let him go—I couldn't let anything happen to him. I needed to get him to Takeru...

The dark clouds up above confused me, I wasn't really sure why they were black and I wasn't really sure why everything looked like it was dying... But I knew it had to have something to do with the doorway between the dark ocean and the digital world being left open...

I could see the sun setting, and I was almost scared to see how dark the night would be if what was around us was considered day time.

"We should camp." Tokomon said simply from my arms as we came into a particularly thick batch of trees. "Walking during the night isn't safe. We should sleep here."

"We should _not_." Jou hissed, "We need to get to... the... wherever Momoe is. Now."

"And what if we _do_ get there?" Miyako asked, "If we get there without having rested first and without any digimon to help us fight then not only will Momoe die, but we'll die too."

"I don't care!" Jou insisted. "I don't care about any of it. I just want to get to Momoe!"

"What about Bukamon?" Tokomon asked. "Do you not want to see him?"

"No—well actually _yes_." Jou sighed, "Yeah I do... but at the same time... it's just..."

"I understand." Ken said, cutting across, "We'll get Momoe. Don't worry."

"No..." Koushiro practically growled. "Don't listen to him Jou. You have to worry. If you don't worry about what's going on, you will only find yourself upset with the outcome. Don't let your fear and worry overcome you, but you still must keep on edge."

"That's sort of... what I meant." Ken said slowly. He looked kind of ridiculous. His hair was singed, his face and arms lightly dusted with red burns, and his clothing had clearly seen better days. That explosion he'd taken part of hadn't treated him too well.

"Well then that's what you should have said." Koushiro said simply, crossing his arms awkwardly, favouring his shoulder. It looked painful, and I figured Jou would have to look at it sooner or later, or else it'd get infected…

"Let's just keep going?" Jou suggested.

"I think we should trust Tokomon." Sora added with a smile. "He's the only one that really understands what's going on." Everyone turned to stare at Sora who was standing in the middle of the group.

"Well Sora's the leader right?" Iori asked, "So I say we trust her. So we're listening to Tokomon?"

"Actually Miyako is in charge now." Sora said slowly.

"So Miyako can make the decision?" Koushiro asked as we all turned toward her. her face turned from proud to nervous instantly as she reached up and grabbed the goggles. She held them for a moment, looking from Sora, to Iori, and then to Ken and Koushiro. Finally she settled on me and Tokomon and sighed.

"We should stay here." She said, her eyes closed. "We should make camp. If Tokomon says that it's not safe to move at night then I believe him."

Ken looked upset that Miyako had chosen to stay, but it was nothing compared to the look on Jou's face. Jou looked as though, if Miyako were anyone other than who she was, he would have punched her right then and there. But instead he just gritted his teeth, muttered the word "fine" and spun around, looking away from us all. I sort of agreed with Jou, but I would never admit to disagreeing with both Sora and the chosen leader. It just didn't make sense to me why we would wait. Sitting still was more dangerous than being on the run anyway right?

It was particularly silent for a few moments after Miyako's decision. Koushiro and Sora sat down by a large tree, as Iori, Jou and Ken sat down across from them against a different tree. Sora smiled at me, and guestured for me to sit down next to her, but I shook my head lightly. I looked to Miyako for a moment and sighed. She was under more pressure than she was used to, making decisions. She was upset that people wouldn't trust her decisions. I could tell. But I trusted her... she wore the goggles, and apparently that meant that she was in charge, so I let her be exactly that.

"What exactly is so dangerous out there anyway?" Koushiro asked loudly, clearly directing his words towards Tokomon who was still sitting silently in my arms.

"Well..." Tokomon said slowly. "It's... the dark ocean." I heard Ken mumble something inaudible as Sora and him exchanged glances. "The creatures from there come out at night. They are stronger under the light of the moon."

"I see..." I said slowly. "So by waiting here...?"

"We're going to be safe?" Iori asked, finishing my question.

"Well..." Tokomon mumbled, "No. But we will be safer if we hide."

"Well where are we going to hide then?" Ken asked, "All I see is trees..."

"Exactly." Tokomon smiled. "Trees. We'll hide in the trees."

"I don't suppose you have another holographic tree sitting around?" I asked, hopeful.

"No." Tokomon giggled, "But there are loads of great climbing trees around here."

"We're going to be sleeping in a tree?" Ken asked a little solemnly as he looked up. "They look..."

"Comfortable." Jou finished for him, sarcastically.

"Well if it's a choice between running from demons all night or sleep safely in the trees... then I pick the trees." Sora said.

"I agree." Koushiro and I said together.

Tokomon and Miyako nodded.

"So now what?" Ken asked, "We're camping here... do we need food? Firewood? What?"

"Well firewood would defeat the purpose of hiding." Jou pointed out.

"Jou is correct." Koushiro said. "If we start a fire it'll be like a signal leading the creatures Tokomon is speaking of right to us. So I vote on a 'no' for the fire idea."

"Then we're in for a cold night." Iori pointed out.

"Well what about food though?" Miyako asked, "I'm kind of hungry and I can only imagine that if the rest of you boys eat like Mantarou, Ken, and Daisuke, that you're all probably hungry too. And if there's anything I learned about digimon it's that they love food."

"That's true!" Otamamon smiled from Ken's arms.

"So," Miyako said loudly and clearly, "Someone needs to get food while the rest of us find a good place to sleep... or as good as we can manage in a lumpy old tree."

"I'll look for food." Jou said.

My first thought was that he would be running off to find Momoe so I decided that there was no way I was going to let him go alone. "I'll go with you." I said, but I noticed someone else saying "me too" at the same time. I turned to see Sora, who clearly thought the same way I did. She smiled at me and jumped to her feet.

"Let's go then?" She said, skipping off instantly.

I turned to Miyako and handed her Tokomon. She smiled at me and then looked to Koushiro who was glaring at Ken. "You look over there! Ken—over that way. Iori, you're with me." She then tossed Tokomon to Koushiro who gasped and caught him. Tokomon sent Miyako a glare and then stuck his tongue out at her.

"Yamato?" I turned to see Jou and Sora waiting for me so I hurried after them.

I wasn't sure what kind of food we would be able to find in the digital world anymore, not after it had fused with the Dark Ocean. There was no way I was going to eat fish that had come out of that water... and even the trees looked dark and poisonous and I wasn't really in the mood to risk my life to eat a berry or an apple.

The three of us just sort of walked silently around the forest for a bit, until finally Sora said "Miyako is a good leader."

"Yeah." Jou and I agreed.

"I think it's good for her to get the chance." She smiled.

"You were good too." Jou pointed out.

"Not as good as her." Sora said, looking down.

"Sora, stop being so hard on yourself." I told her, "You're pretty awesome to me, and I'm sure if you could just see yourself the way I do you'd be an invincible machine of amazing."I reached out and grabbed Sora's hand as she smiled up at me and moved closer.

"Thanks Yamato." She said smilng.

"Look!" Jou said with a grin on his face. He was pointing to a bush with berries practically overflowing the branches. The bush was luscious and green and the berries looked like nothing at all was wrong with them... "I guess we're having berries for supper."

Jou and I set to work at picking them immediately as Sora found a large cupped leaf for us to put them in. She watched the sky as she held the leaf. I looked up to see what was so interesting and noticed that the sun was completely gone now. I thought to myself that we should probably get back to the others, but neither Sora nor Jou seemed worried. "I wish... there was just something that reminded me of the past digital world." Sora said slowly, interrupting my thoughts.

"Like what?" I asked her as I picked another handful of the red and purple berries.

"Like Yokomon... like colour... us as a group? A plan? An idea of what exactly is going on." Sora ranted.

"Our digivices." Jou said slowly.

"Yeah that too!" Sora said.

As if on cue, the sky lit up and large shadows were cast around us. We all looked up in time to see three beams of light come smashing down out of the sky. Each beam of light shone into the ground like a spotlight and then slowly faded.

I looked to Jou and then to Sora who were both staring down at where the lights landed. As I looked down my heart practically jumped. I dropped the berries I was holding and dove toward the ground, scooping the ovular silver machine into my hand. "Digivices." I whispered. "This is..."

"Scary?" Jou suggested. "Isn't it weird that—?"

"I don't even care how weird it is." I told him with a laugh. "I have my digivice... now all I need is Tsunomon so I can kick some digimon butt!"

"Which we should strategize and plan out before—" Sora cut herself off and stopped moving entirely. I didn't blame her. I had heard it too. There was something in the bushes around us. Jou slowly stood up after grabbing his digivice, and then grabbed my arm and pulled me into a standing position too.

Sora reached down to grab her digivice but screamed. I looked toward her quickly and saw a dark hand reaching out of the bush we had just been picking berries from. She dropped the leaf and grabbed her digivice which began to glow instantly. The creature let out a loud hissing noise and then retracted into the bush as the red light from her digivice touched its skin.

Sora turned to me, grabbed my arm and then started running. Jou released my arm and followed us nervously. As we ran toward the others more of the creatures leapt out at us. This time Jou's and my own digivices glowed silver and blue respectively as we raised our arms in defense. The creatures were tall and oily, their eyes were black and their hands, feet and even their heads were clawed. And as the light from the digivices reached them they backed off, hissing like the last one had.

"Sora!" I heard Miykao yell in the distance, I looked around, unable to find her. "Yamato! Jou!"

Finally I spotted her, standing next to Iori and Ken who was still holding Otamamon. I smiled, being around the others seemed to make me feel safe, I wasn't sure why exactly, but just the thought of my friends seemed to fix things. And seeing the dark figure emerge from the ground behind them didn't help at all.

"Miyako!" Sora yelled, "Look behind you!"

Miyako turned around and screamed loudly as three more beams of light shot from the sky and landed around the three younger digidestined. One of the lights was magenta, one was a pale yellow and one was turquoise. Slowly the lights seemed to wrap themselves around them, lighting up the area surrounding them, revealing numerous creatures. Miyako screamed again as the creatures lunged toward her only to be burned by the lights like the other ones.

Sora, Jou and I skidded to a stop in front of the light and then jumped inside the strange protective bubble.

"What's the light coming from?" Ken asked.

"Are those...?" Iori asked falling to his knees and grabbed one of the digivices, as he did so the light faded. "It's a digivice!"

Miyako and Ken were quick to pick their own up as well, turning off all the surrounding light. I pulled Sora behind me and wedged her safely between Jou and I as Miyako stormed out into the darkness. Iori tried to grab at her but Ken beat him to it, rushing out after her, thrusting Otamamon into Sora's arms.

"I'm... scared." He whispered.

"I know... its okay." Sora insisted.

"I'm not scared of you! Stupid Dark Ocean creatures!" Miyako roared, "My digivice can protect me!"

"Miyako it's not safe—" Ken tried, but he was cut off by another one of Miyako's screams as her digivice lit up once more. This time the creature that stood in front of her was at least ten feet tall, and it was cloaked. It was still clawed and oily, and the eyes that peered through the menacing cloak were still red, but it was different from the others... and it looked stronger too.

Miyako held her digivice up after she took control of her screaming, but the creature reached out of it's cloak and grabbed Miyako's arm forcing her to drop her digivice. Ken stepped forward, holding his digivice up too, but the creature reached his second hand out and smacked Ken in the chest pushing him over, his digivice flying in the air toward us. Iori hurried forward and grabbed it.

"Digidetined..." A grumbling voice came from the cloaked man holding onto Miyako. "Are here. Come... with me. Master will be pleased."

"Let go of me!" Miyako roared, struggling to get free. Ken pulling himself shakily to his feet. "Let go. Or else." Ken ran once more at the creature, who simply flapped his cloak sending Ken back again. Ken smashed into a nearby tree. Jou was quick to run toward Ken with Iori close at hand, each holding their digivices out.

I felt Sora squeeze my shoulder tightly as I tried to take a step out to help Miyako but as I looked around I understood why. There were more of the smaller creatures advancing on us. I held up my shaky hand and watched as the blue light shone around us to protect us. It felt weird being able to actually defend myself against the creatures.

Sora held up her light too as we both looked over our shoulder at Miyako. I had to help her...

I turned quickly and ran toward her but felt hands wrap around my ankles tightly, and found myself falling face first onto the ground moments later. I looked back and saw that the creatures were climbing my legs. I pointed my digivice at them, but one of them came and grabbed my arm.

"Sora!" I yelled. "Help!"

"Bubble blow!" Roared a familiar squeaking voice.

I looked over in time to see Tokomon running out of the darkness and spitting bubbles at the creature holding my arm. I smiled as I blasted them off of my legs.

As I jumped to my feet and looked around I saw that the creature that was holding Miyako's arm was surrounded by a blinding violet light.

"Koushiro!" Miyako cheered as the creature released her. Miyako fell into Koushiro's arm and hugged him. "I love you. I. Love. You!" I saw Koushiro's face turn red as he dragged her away from the creature.

"Tokomon?" Koushiro asked, releasing Miyako and reached toward his laptop to be sure it was there. "We can't sleep here."

"I know." Tokomon said. "I have an idea though... the digivices are released obviously. We need to get to the Temple."

"Where?" Sora asked, running over to us.

"The Temple... it's the safe place." Tokomon clarified.

"And you know how to get there?" Ken asked as Iori and Jou helped him toward the rest of us.

"I think so." Tokomon said.

"You think?" Iori asked.

"We need to find Momoe!" Jou repeated. "She's obviously not at the safe place."

"No she won't be." Tokomon said. "But I don't know where she is. And the people there will. That's where our army is. If anyone would know... they will."

Jou nodded and Miyako smiled. "Let's go then?"

We all held our digivices tightly as the creatures watched us from the trees and bushes. I couldn't deny that this had been the scariest time of my entire life, and I never wanted to see another one of those awful creatures... but it was cool to have my digivice back. It was cool to have a plan, and it was cool to have a reason to be here.

Sora looked to me and smiled. I grabbed her hand and smiled back.

"So..." Otamamon said, "Did you guys find any food? Watermelon perhaps?"

_**Jun:**_

"How's school going for you?" Shuu asked me, as we relaxed after our picnic. It was a ridiculously romantic thing for Shuu to plan. I totally loved it. I was pretty sure he could tell. He was holding my hand, rubbing little circles on the back of it. We were even sharing secret smiles.

I _knew_ getting Daisuke to digi-sit was a good idea.

Everything was working out perfectly.

"It's okay I guess," I said with a small shrug.

"What's wrong with it?" he asked furrowing his brows. It was adorable how much he cared about my future. It made me feel as though he was planning to be a part of it too.

"I suppose I'm just not as interested in psychology as I should be," I said. "I find the whole delving-into-the-human mind to be fascinating…for a couple of hours, but I can't see myself dedicating my life to it. But my parents are so proud of my scientific field that I'm too afraid to switch into something more general until I can find something that really speaks to me. You know?"

"Yeah," Shuu said. "I had the same problem. Dad wanted me to go into the medical field, just like every Kido in the history of our family, but I just couldn't do it. He was threatening to disown me for awhile there too. Things relaxed a bit when Shin started to go for a medical degree. He's not sure what specific field he wants though. He's thinking surgeon. It's a pretty intense job, but he thinks it'll make dad forget that I'm studying folklore and legends. And then Jou had to one up Shin and try his hands at both Veterinary and Doctorial degrees. I don't think he had time to sleep at all last year, what with his girlfriend, his classes and his homework. I'm surprised he's still hanging in there."

"He's a digidestined, like Daisuke," I told him, as if it explained everything. "They're stubborn, and if he can manage to save the world at twelve, he can get two degrees at once. But I don't think Daisuke will be going into the field of science…or anything that would remotely placate my parents should I change career goals. He wants to own a noodle cart. Don't get me wrong. His noodles are like a taste of heaven. But his choice career just has my parents putting more pressure on me. Maybe I should just finish off my degree, and _then_ look into something else. That way I can at least say I've got that degree under my belt."

"I suppose that depends on what you decide to do whether that choice is plausible or not. If you wanted to be a reporter or journalist, for example, the theory behind understanding the human mind won't help you in the slightest, and might actual take away from the objective articles you should be writing. However should you want to go into law, as…say a criminal profiler, this degree could be quite useful. Just think it through," he told me. "It's _your_ life, not your parents, so live it how you want to and to the fullest."

"And if I don't want to live it to the fullest?" I teased, trying to lighten the mood. It was supposed to be a romantic day after all.

He rolled his eyes, but smiled at me nonetheless.

It was as I was leaning in for a kiss that I saw a peculiar shape. It was kind of fuzzy, like a bad TV signal.

"Shuu," I whispered frantically, as its eyes met mine.

"Hmm?" he said, opening his eyes slowly, having realized I wasn't going to be kissing him.

"What is that?"

He looked over and quickly sat up straighter. "It's a…digimon?"

"That's what I thought," I said biting back a groan. So much for a digimon free date. But I couldn't help but wonder… "Why is it here?"

"It doesn't look like it is here. Not fully at least," he said. "How would you feel about looking into this?"

I nodded. I hadn't planned on it, but this digimon—if that's what it really was—was like a man, only he was on fire all over. He was rather scary. I pulled out my cell phone, and snapped a picture of him. It was incredibly blurry, even more so than he was when I looked straight at him.

"I'm going to call Daisuke," I said. "He'll know what it is and what to do."

"Right," Shuu said. "Good idea."

I dialled the familiar numbers, but instead of the ringing I expected, a female started speaking.

"I'm sorry, the number you have dialled cannot be reached from this location. Please leave Earth's plane before trying again."

"What?" I asked, looking at my phone in horror. Something was definitely not right around here, and my only hope at finding out what exactly was wrong, wasn't even able to be accessed.

Was he hurt? Dead? I winced at the thought.

But the voice said I had to leave _Earth_ in order to contact him.

Where _was_ my baby brother?

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Miyako takes charge as they head toward the Temple. Is their new leader faring as well as she wants them to think? Find out next time!


	20. Follow the Leader

**Y/N:** Here's your next update. You'll get another in two days I think, getting us back to a Saturday update. I enjoyed writing this one, and it would have been done faster, if I hadn't gotten on a plotting kick, and plotted out several of the side-plot pieces, as well as bits of the next chapters, and certain parts that I want to fit in later on… I was kind of excited about it (more excited about the miraculous need to plot than actually writing this one—but to be fair, I only started yesterday…) I hope you enjoy it, and will review if you did. There's a snazzy new reviewing device, so that's cool!

**U/N: **Uhm... this chapter-I was Gennai :D I HATE Gennai... but... yeah i like the chapter! just review and tell us what you think  
The next chapter is a long one, just like the Joushiro one in chapter nine... but my goal in LIFE right now is to make sure it's up by saturday... sooooo

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 20: Follow the Leader**

_**Miyako:**_

My heart was still beating fast from our encounter with the creepy not-quite-a-digimon—as I'd taken to calling him—and I could still feel his grip on my arm. I shivered again, stepping a little closer to Koushiro, thankful that he'd been able to save me.

I had to be strong though. I was the leader. I'd never seen Daisuke do this, and I'm sure Taichi didn't either.

Sure, they'd probably been scared at some point, but they'd _never_ let the others see.

Being the leader was too hard.

I didn't want to do it anymore.

It seemed like so much fun in theory. I could tell the others what to do, and they'd have to do it. No matter what the outcome of votes was, I could over-rule it in favour of what I wanted to do. Everyone looked to me for advice and that was great, but they seemed to think whatever I said was set in stone. That they had no choice.

And if things went bad, that meant it was _my_ fault.

They wouldn't come right out and blame me, but I would. I would blame myself, and it was too much to put on someone as prone to panic attacks as I was.

"We're going to keep moving," I said, when there was a long silence. We were trying not to catch another enemy's attention. Everyone was tired, and all of the battles we'd been in those past few hours. We'd been attacked by LadyDevimon, Kuwagamon and now this creepy-not-quite-a-digimon. And we hadn't even found the others yet.

_We better find them soon!_ I thought, fiddling with the goggles on head. I was so not worthy to wear them, no matter what the others seemed to think.

"Are we even going the right way?" Yamato asked. He was walking behind me, with one arm slung over Sora's shoulder. His other hand was clutching his digivice. We were all doing that. They were the only weapon we had, the only thing that gave us the upper-hand in battle.

That was another thing I didn't like about this new Digital World. We were easy targets, and that put me on edge. I liked having even footing with the enemy. If we were a step ahead of them, I wouldn't complain. As it was, we didn't know who we were facing, we had no allies to fight with us, and we had beams of light as our only weapon.

"Yes," Tokomon said, interrupting my internal complaints.

"How can you know where anything is," Ken mumbled, looking around the trees. He seemed to want to catch up with me, to hold my hand as we walked. I though he looked a tad jealous of my close proximity to Koushiro. I was just thankful Koushiro saved my life. He'd always been my sensei, and I thought the world of him, I just didn't see him in the same light that I saw Ken. I felt a sort of thrill seeing him jealous, I'm not proud to admit. It made me tingle to know he liked me enough to get jealous. If he and Koushiro weren't at each other's throats at the time, I would have willingly walked with both of them.

As it was, Ken was a distraction.

I had to think for the good of the group, and couldn't afford to let my mind be clouded with the feelings I always felt when he was there.

I loved him.

And that fact could make or break my stint as leader. Or it could test our relationship. Neither seemed like a particularly good option.

"I've lived in this area for three years," Tokomon supplied. "Hmm…but some of this isn't familiar…"

And there went my hope of surviving the night.

I wished for Mimi's presence.

She was flamboyant, and bubbly, and always able to lift the group's morale. Not to mention she was the most beautiful girl in the world, and my idol. If she were there I would've given up the goggles in a heart-beat. She would've been the best leader ever. _Everyone _liked her, and there would be no trouble for her to make any decisions. Her instincts were much better than mine.

She wasn't afraid of upsetting people; she spoke her mind and stuck to her gut feelings about right and wrong.

I didn't want anyone mad at me.

She would flourish under the pressure, and I was drowning in it.

"Great," Jou grumbled. "We don't even know where we're going. We might as well search for Momoe then, if we don't know how to get to the Temple."

"I want to find Momoe too," I told him sharply. "She's my sister. I complain about her a lot, but she's family, she's my _closest_ sibling. I don't know what I'll do if something happens to her. But we have to try and find help, because we just can't do it on our own."

He stared at me in shock.

To be honest, I was surprised myself. I'd been so scared of hurting anyone's feelings, I was walking on glass around everyone, that I'd snapped at him.

What was Sora thinking, giving me these goggles?

"You're right," he said grudgingly. "I know you're right. It's just hard. To know she's out there wondering what the hell is going on. She was sure digimon was just a game. The way she inserts 'digi' and 'mon' into her speech when I'm sad about Gomamon, you just know she had no idea it was really _real_, you know? And now she's here, and she's eight months pregnant, and she was taken from me by one of the digimon I hate the most. I just don't know what to do."

"It hurts a lot, that you weren't able to save her," Iori said, not asked.

"Yeah," Jou admitted.

"And you _know_ that she's…wherever she is, and waiting for you to come and get her, with such unwaivering dedication, and you just don't think you can handle to pressure or live up to who she thinks you are," Iori continued. "And you're trying to understand what's happening in this world that is _not_ the Digital World but you can't figure it out, all the while being attacked left, right and centre by enemies you didn't realize you still had."

"Yeah," Jou said again. "You too?"

"Natsuni _and_ Noriko," Iori admitted. "It seems harder to me, because you know that Momoe is going to love you regardless—and your baby too—when we get them out. She _knows_ you're coming. I don't really care what Noriko thinks of me, but Natsuni hasn't even heard of digimon before. And I know she's not going to give me a chance to explain. She'll be horrified by her experience, and never want to see any of us again. Momoe has you and Miyako and Ken and…I don't know…but she has some idea of what's going on."

"But Natsuni let herself be caught," Jou reminded him. This was news to me. That girl had a lot of fight in her. "She would've been caught anyway, when LadyDevimon set her eyes on her, but she didn't try to get away."

"She's protecting Momoe," Iori said with a quiet chuckle.

"She probably thinks it's an adventure," Jou commented. "An action/adventure movie that _she_ is the damsel in distress for."

"No," Iori said, laughing louder now. "She'll think she's the hero, saving the pregnant woman at the sake of herself."

"And the obsessed stalker," Yamato added.

"And Noriko," Iori agreed.

"So there's no need to worry. We'll get to them soon," I concluded. "Natsuni will keep them safe until then. And I'm sure it won't be long before we get them, after we get to the Temple."

"And the Temple isn't too far from here," Tokomon announced. "I know where we are now. Last time I was here I wasn't quite so small. That's why I was lost before."

"Good," I said. "See, things are looking up!"

And just like that, I managed to screw up being a leader.

I jinxed our luck.

It was then that we heard the sound of a snapping twig. We all froze, raising our digivices out in front of us, turning our backs towards each other, creating a circle of defence for our two—rather weak—digimon friends.

Our talking had covered up the sounds of this enemy's approach.

I gulped, and mentally pushed away my panic. I couldn't afford an attack now. I had to prepare for a battle.

"Be quiet! Do you want to get found?"

It was a deceiving voice. It sounded small and weak, not unlike Tokomon or Otamamon. It was trying to get us to lower our guard. We couldn't allow ourselves to do that.

"I'm trying," another voice cried. "I don't have feet like you do!"

"Ah!" Ken cried out happily.

We all turned to him and shushed him. But he didn't listen. In fact, he didn't have time to listen. A small shout came from deep in the trees, and suddenly, Ken had to duck, or else be hit by yet another digimon.

"Bubble-blow!" Tokomon shouted, allowing his attack to explode the one sent by our new foe.

"Tokomon?" both of the small voices asked in surprise.

"Who's there?" Tokomon demanded.

"It's Minnomon," Ken explained. "Minnomon and DemiVeemon."

Now that he'd said it, I couldn't believe I'd missed it. I slapped my palm against my forehead. I'd been so focused on finding enemies that I'd forgotten our digimon partners were waiting for us somewhere in this forsaken place.

"Ken?" The small voice wavered as he said this, as if every happiness was bestowed upon him all at once.

"I'm here," Ken said loudly.

"Oh, Ken! Ken!" Minnomon said springing from the darkness right into Ken's arms. "I've missed you so much."

"Not as much as I've missed you," Ken said, his voice cracking with the emotion behind that statement. Minnomon reached over and touched the digivice that was in Ken's hand. He was surrounded by a bright, magenta light. When the light vanished, Wormmon was in his place. Though he couldn't show it, I could tell he was trying to smile.

"Daisuke, is he here?" DemiVeemon asked shyly.

"Not with us, no," Sora said gently.

"I believe the others are at the Temple," Tokomon said.

"Though I've no idea what you've based that hypothesis off of, I find myself reluctantly agreeing with that," Koushiro said, looking into the distance, trying to find the Temple, I thought. He shifted his laptop on his shoulder. He could only use one of the straps due to his injury. If I hadn't known that to be the only reason, I'd have thought he was attempting to be cool, using just the one strap. It was very unlike him.

"So I can't digivolve?" DemiVeemon asked crankily. I shook my head at him, and he sent a glare my way. "Carry me."

It wasn't a question.

Since I knew he was being demanding to cover up how sad he was that Daisuke wasn't here, and how jealous he was that Wormmon was now stronger tan him, I opened my arms for him to jump up.

"This isn't your sector," Tokomon said feigning nonchalance…that's how I knew it was important.

"No," DemiVeemon said. "We we chased out of our sectors."

"They appeared to be gathering for something," Wormmon added.

"We have to hurry then," Tokomon announced. "We have to move faster than they do."

"Why?" Yamato asked.

"What's going on?" Iori demanded.

"They're readying to attack the Temple," Tokomon explained.

"And we're headed for the centre of the battle because?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Because they're going to need us to help them," DemiVeemon said. "We're small, and relatively powerless, and useless in the actual battle, but if we can tell them what we know about the numbers, and use that knowledge to make up battle strategies, we could save the lives of loads of digimon."

"I have to live through this battle," Jou said. "So I can save Momoe. If Iori's right, and she's just _waiting_ for me, then she'll hunt me down and kill me if I die now, and I'm allergic to dying."

"I thought you'd taken your medicine?" Yamato asked with a snicker.

"It wore off during that last battle," Jou said sheepishly.

"I don't want to be fish fry," Otamamon complained. "I don't want to go into battle again."

"You don't have much of a choice," Koushiro told him. "And you're one of our strongest digimon—though you're not as strong as our digivices—you'll be…_important_." He shuddered as he said that last word, as if it were actually painful for him to admit it.

Otamamon basked in what he thought was praise, and didn't complain again, so I figured that was a plus.

"It's quicker to get to the Temple if we skirt around the mountain," Wormmon said.

"But it's too dangerous. They mostly come out at night," DemiVeemon continued.

"And you thought we'd be able to set up camp because…?" I asked Tokomon, raising my right eyebrow at him.

"I thought we had to," he said. "You function much better with sleep."

"We function much better when we're alive too," Jou said dryly.

"If we go that way," DemiVeemon said, pointing ahead of us and to the left. "We'll come out close to the mountain. We might be able to get passed the enemies if they're preparing for battle. They might not notice us."

"I thought you said going around the mountain was too dangerous," Iori commented.

"Yes, well, it's much safer than scaling a nearly vertical mountain in the darkness of night," Wormmon said. "We won't be able to see anything."

"Okay," I interrupted, before Koushiro or Ken or Jou could argue with Worrmon's logic—I personally thought falling to death was much better than being roasted alive, or skewered, or…you get the picture…by the enemies—channelling my inner leader. "We're going right now. Every second that we argue, there's another second that one of our friends could be hunted down because we weren't there to help them with the upcoming battle."

When it was put like that, everyone kept their lips sealed.

"Good. Lead the way Tokomon."

It was a very quiet trip. No one dared to contradict me. No one wanted to become the hunted…yet again. It wasn't long though, before the silence was interrupted.

"What?" Tokomon said his voice laced with confusion.

"What's wrong?" Yamato asked, raising his digivice, and pointing it in all sorts of directions, as if it were a gun.

"This lake…" Tokomon said, tilting his head.

"It's dark?" Ken suggested.

"No, no," Tokomon said. "It wasn't…there before…"

"It's been here for awhile," DemiVeemon said matter-of-factly. "A month at least. You just haven't been needed over this way."

"Alright. I suppose we'll go around it," Tokomon said.

"That's probably the best choice."

I screamed bloody murder, and must have jumped at least three feet in the air. Sora and Jou had similar reactions. Koushiro and Ken looked like they wanted to pass out in surprise. Iori and Yamato though, whipped their digivices toward the speaker in under a second. Their reflexes were pretty great. And the four digimon—with Otamamon standing part way hidden behind Tokomon—were ready as well. Ken and Koushiro didn't take long to understand what was happening. Sora followed, and then Jou.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even manage to get my weapon up before we realized it wasn't a threat.

"Whoa there," Betamon said. "I don't think I'd appreciate being vaporized."

"Betamon!" DemiVeemon and Wormmon shouted happily.

"We thought you were one of _them_," Tokomon said conspiratorially.

"No, no," he said. "Just watching from my new post."

"The _dark_ ocean water?" Koushiro asked, having crouched down to analyze the water. "Is that safe?"

"I'm a water digimon," Betamon said simply, as if talking to a five year old. Koushiro's eye was twitching at his condescending tone. I had to look away to keep from laughing. "I don't really have a choice."

"Why are you still a rookie, Betamon?" DemiVeemon asked, bouncing up and down at my feet.

"I don't know," he said. I got the feeling that if he had shoulders, he'd be shrugging them. "Must be the water."

"But if Dragomon and Fanglongmon are using the powers of the Dark Ocean to collect the energy emitted from the crests through you digimon, wouldn't the water from the Dark Ocean work in the exact opposite way?" Koushiro asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Maybe," Betamon said cryptically.

"And considering you weren't even a Mega when they started draining said energy, only and Ultimate, you've only decreased two levels, while the others have all been reduced by four," Koushiro added.

"I don't know what answer you want from me," Betamon said. "You sound smart, if that's what you're going for. But I don't have the answers to those questions. I've been doing my best to spy on the enemies by moving from lake to lake, but they never say what it is they're doing. Their leader must feed the information to them last minute."

Koushiro glared at him, but remained silent.

"You know," Otamamon said and I wanted to tell him to shut up—Koushiro looked ready to kill something—but I didn't want to be rude. "We're probably a lot safer than the others. Our group now has five digimon, three _rookies_ too. And we don't even know that they're at this safe Temple place. They could be lost, or dying even. We're lucky."

"They're not lost or dying," Koushiro told him through gritted teeth.

"What facts do you have to back _that_ hypothesis?" Betamon questioned—just to grate his nerves even more. It would have been hilarious, you know, if it wasn't our friends' lives he was talking about.

"They have to be alright," he said letting out a great big sigh. "They can take care of themselves. They're all strong. They'll be fine."

But he seemed to be trying to convince himself of that.

"Meiyomon is with them," Iori said. "Nothing will keep him from trying to explode stuff. Whatever it is we're up against, they'll be getting more than they can handle out of them."

"And Takeru's strong too," Sora said, looking at Yamato, who looked worse than either Koushiro or Iori. "And he's got Mimi and Michael and Taichi to protect him."

"And Daisuke and Willis too," I added. "They might all have to protect Hikari, with how sick she was…and I'm not sure about Kurayami, but they'll be fine."

"They _have_ to be," Koushiro stressed again. Jou nodded—though I had a feeling he was referring to my sister, and not the others.

"So, Iori," Betamon said trying to break the tension—and failing miserably by unknowingly referring to the same topic. "You ask that girl out?"

"Er…no," Iori said. "She ended up becoming a stalker though, and then she got taken by evil digimon."

"Oh well," Betamon said. "Like Michael says, you win some, you lose some. Speaking of Michael, where is he?"

"We're not sure, but he might be at the Temple," Sora supplied.

"Oh. Let's go this way then," Betamon said. "It'll get us there faster."

Without giving us a moment to think, he started off along the shore of his lake in the direction we'd come from. He paused only to beckon us onwards.

Not wanting to be left behind, I started off after him.

And the others followed their leader.

_**Gennai:**_

I couldn't find them anywhere! I hadn't been searching long but after my intense training in the temple I had learned a few new tricks. Among them was sensing the surroundings. Sure I likely looked like a fool with my ear planted on the ground, but I was sure no one had seen me. It was dark around me, and I wasn't sure how safe it would be for me to be wandering about—but it would be even more dangerous for that of the digidestined.

Daisuke... Daisuke I understood—he was in question for his leadership skills and with both Taichi and I in the group his skills were suppressed and pushed away. He felt suffocated. Also he wasn't the brightest of the digidestined, and so it made perfect sense for him to be out and about...

But Kurayami... she was a smart one. I had talked to her many times before... I'd even helped her come to the conclusion of what her crest was really for. But I didn't understand why she would willingly head off into the forest alone when she knew we were heading to a safe place... it just didn't add up. The only solution I could come up with was that they wanted their digimon so desperately that they had forced themselves to separate from the group to find them! Or... maybe to find Kurayami's mother? Or perhaps... no that's couldn't be possible.

I continued my search, creeping through the forest, searching aimlessly. For some reason the demons weren't following me. I knew I could defend myself if they did... but I hadn't yet had to draw my sword. Perhaps there was something more interesting to them in the forest? Or perhaps they were preparing for battle? But there was too many of them to all even attempt to fight in one battle—and so there must have been something out in the forest.

And it must have been Daisuke and Kurayami... they were defenceless! I needed to find them!

But I also needed to get back to the Temple to help the others...

I decided I would keep looking just a little while longer.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Mimi and Sora take up the narration in the next duel chapter. Will they ever meet up? Will Dragomon and Fanglongmon and their minions keep them from that goal? Find out next time!


	21. Temple War

**Y/N:** Wow…this is a long one. I hope that makes up for how late we've been throughout the whole second arc. I am really liking the Earth parts—they're more fun to write than the man parts…oops—and I really hope you like them too. This chapter was confusing at first to write, but I think it'll be easy to read. Review—or Comment as it is now—if you want! :)

**U/N: **Sorry it's late, we wrote most of it Friday to Saturday... i'm finished just now at 2:08 am on Sunday morning... yay Canada Day :D but sorry... my sister is likely asleep so you'll get it later as i'm emailing this to her from my current location... sorry about that wait... actually she just emailed me... so maybe not... hurray! Never mind... she emailed me three hours ago but I didn't get it until now! :O oh well... I guess I'll put it up because she sent me the file... I'm sure you don't care... WOW I am just tired... enjoy this freaking chapter for the sake of all the sock monkeys and dinosaur puppets... what? Oh boo... but you're probably all sleeping anyway... so this is a fun chapter-really hard to write... i think my parts are poor quality... but it was REALLY hard... i feel it's rushed but-oh make your own opinions... enjoy this arch ending SHEBAM of a chapter... And review :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: In the Digital World?**

**Chapter 21: Temple War**

_**Hiroaki:**_

"Do you really think that girl is going to be okay out there?" Toshiko asked me as we dragged the digimon into my home. I felt like a fool carrying what looked like a large stuffed animal through the streets, but everyone had been too busy screaming and running away from the other digimon to really take much notice of us. "I mean... a frying pan can cook a wonderful omelette but can it really defend her from all of the digimon?"

I nodded, "She'll be fine Toshiko..." I wasn't sure to be totally honest, but I didn't have time to think about Rei's safety. She was just grouped in with the rest of the world as 'unsafe'. I had to figure out why the digimon were here and how they had managed to get to the human world while our children couldn't even get to their world.

We ended up setting the Bakemon down in one of the kitchen chairs, and I was quick to find some rope and tie him up. He was still unconscious, so he was no use to me at the moment, so I turned to find Toshiko. She was standing by the door looking down at the shoes by the entry way.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"These are Sora's shoes." She said slowly. "This is where she's been staying?"

"Uh..." I froze, a little awkwardly, I nodded. "Yes... She said you and her had some sort of falling out and I was happy to keep her here for as long as she needed." I thought she would be upset that I had stolen her daughter from her, but she turned to me with a smile.

"Thank you for taking care of her." She said with a smile. She shook her head and pulled some loose strands of hair out of her face. "So where is this friend of Sora's you told me about?"

"Ah... yes." I said, motioning for her to follow me. I turned and led her to my bedroom where, sitting on the bed with his legs crossed looking particularly bored, was Wizardmon. As we entered the room he looked up excitedly.

"You're back!" he said quickly, floating across the room toward me.

Toshiko looked shocked to see that the friend was not only a digimon, but also dead... a ghost. She bit her bottom lip and tried to smile.

"Hello Ma'am!" Wizardmon smiled, "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." Toshiko said slowly. She then cleared her throat. "Hiroaki said that you might have an idea of what is happening to the digimon and our children?" She looked as though that was the hardest thing she had ever done... although talking to a ghost wasn't really on my list of things to do either, he was a pretty nice digimon from what I'd gathered from him, friendly, good mannered and willing to help, so I couldn't really see what her problem was.

"I have no clue." Wizardmon said slowly.

Toshiko sighed slowly.

"I just know that everyone is in danger unless your children can figure it out!" Wizardmon said.

"Figure what out?" Toshiko asked as I looked up from the ground in which I had taken an awkward interest in. For having 'no clue' of what was going on, he seemed to have a pretty good idea of what was happening.

"The puzzle... they need to put all the pieces in the right place—they need to figure out how to keep everything apart." Wizardmon said slowly. "Only then will they be safe."

"Safe from what?" I asked slowly.

"Sudden Death." Wizardmon said.

Toshiko clutched her chest as if she thought she might have a heart attack as she gasped loudly. I felt the same way, but wasn't willing to show that. What did that mean? Did that mean that my sons could just... drop dead at any given moment? If so, I needed to help them with this puzzle... whatever it was... but I was never good at puzzle's. That was always Natsuko's job... I didn't have the patience to sit down with them and actually make a puzzle with them... but this was no ordinary puzzle... this was life or death—Natsuko! I was supposed to meet her an hour ago!

I turned from Toshiko and Wizardmon as Wizardmon tried to comfort her, only to find that patting her back only resulted in his hand falling right through her shoulder.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialled the familiar number that was Natsuko's.

I waited for only a few moments when her voice responded "Hi, you've reached Natsuko's cell phone. If you're anyone other than Hiroaki, please leave a message."

I hung up the phone through gritted teeth. So she was mad at me... understandably... but once I found her and explained to her what was going on she was sure to understand... right?

"Hiroaki!" I heard Toshiko call from the kitchen. I hurried toward her voice and found that she and Wizardmon were standing in front of a loud and struggling Bakemon.

"Let me go!" He growled. "Who are you people and what do you want from me?"

I looked to Toshiko and then back to Bakemon. "Why are you here?"

"I don't know!" He snapped, "Last thing I remember I was being beaten over the head by this crazy lady!"

"I can get another frying pan if you'd like." Toshiko warned.

"Well they're all dirty... you'd have to clean one..." I told her, "Wait—no! This is more important than dirty dishes! Why are you in the human world?"

"I was sent here." Bakemon said, suddenly calm. "The portal's are open... and the worlds are ripping apart."

"What?" Toshiko gasped, "What does that even mean?"

"It means that the worlds are tearing away..." Bakemon smirked, "Becoming one."

"They're doing what?" Toshiko and I asked together.

"You're children are not putting the puzzle together correctly." Wizardmon explained. "If they can't pull themselves together soon... then... there's no telling what will happen to this world."

Toshiko looked to me nervously, "What can we do in the mean time?"

"We can use this," I motioned towards the Bakemon, "To our advantage."

_**Mimi:**_

I loved it at the Temple. I was used to things being busy, and I had to admit that Odaiba wasn't near as busy as I liked. Oh, I loved the people I was with, but it just wasn't the same as the thrill and rush of New York City. Of course the Temple had fewer people, and a lot more digimon, and absolutely no motorized vehicles, no Time's Square and definitely no Broadway, but the thrill was still there. There were vendors and little shops and groups of digimon being trained in what to me looked like Tai Chi mixed with yoga. I would have joined them, but some of the moves required the use of a tail…and I am sorely lacking in that department.

The only thing that would have made the Temple perfect, would have been having my digimon partner beside me. I say digimon partner, because I had no idea if she was Palmon, Togemon, Tanemon or even Lilymon or Rosemon. She could have been anything, and she would have been perfect, if she was standing next to me.

Jerk-nai had blocked us out of all the goings-on outside of the Temple. It was almost as if we couldn't feel the time passing. There were few windows, and there wasn't much to see if there were. But we were on a time limit, and it wasn't fair of Jerk-nai to keep us from our friends. Not when we'd done so much for the Digital World in the past, and not when it looked like we'd be needed to ensure it had a future. Even _I_ could see that, and I usually ignore anything unpleasant about the Digital World.

They needed us, the Digital World needed us, and Jerk-nai was trying to take us out like the trash. The idea of causing a riot by rallying all of the digimon in the Temple—rallying is something I'm very good at—briefly crossed my mind, before I decided it was too much work and would take too long to complete its purpose.

"Should we get the others now?" I asked Meiyomon, showing him another bag. I was tempted to actually buy that one. It would make a great purse for Sora, which of course reminded me that Sora—along with Yamato, Koushiro, Jou, Miyako, Ken and Iori—was still waiting for us on Earth.

"We should have got them a long time ago," he said with a toothy smile. "Iori would like this a lot. They had weapons just like he uses over there, and mommy would really like these bags too. I feel bad that we left them behind."

"Me too," I said, putting the purse down. It was making me feel guilty. And it couldn't be helped. Jerk-nai was in his meeting with Taichi, and though he wouldn't see me leaving, I couldn't help but think he would chase after me within minutes, and would no doubt catch me, seeing as it was pitch black outside and I had no idea where I was. I couldn't just go and find them. And a little part of me wanted them to keep their happy memories of the Digital World, rather than have them see it in this desolate shape.

"Oh," Mieyomon exclaimed happily. "Very pretty light show."

I turned, just in time, for a bright green light to shoot towards me. Flashbacks of when Azulongmon killed Jundomon flitted through my memory. I knew it was for me; the way it was flying, the shade of the green. I threw my hands in front of me, like I was aiming to catch a baseball. It hit my palms and I instinctively closed my fingers around it. When the light faded, I opened my hands to see my digivice!

"Take that Jerk-nai, the Digital World is calling for us again!" I shouted, causing many digimon to look at me startled, and take a few steps away. I realized with my cackling laugh I'd been spouting I seemed like a crazy person, and quickly ceased making noise. "Let's find the others," I told Meiyomon—who I was happy to see, _didn't_ step away from me. He nodded and grabbed my hand again, dragging me through the digimon. He must have had some sort of sixth sense, because he led me right to Willis, who was also looking at the wares the vendors were selling.

"Hey Willis," I said. "Did you get one?"

"A bag?" he asked with a sly grin.

"No," I said, holding up my digivice. "A digivice, and you knew full well what I meant."

"Oh yeah," he said pulling his out of his pocket. "Gummymon and Kokomon are going to flip whenever I find them. They keep complaining about being so small."

"I would complain too if I were as small as them," Meiyomon commented. Willis and I hid our laughter, by turning our heads away. "There is Michael, just there."

I looked, and sure enough, he was climbing off of the roof of a nearby store, clutching his own digivice in his hand. He turned and saw us, grinning all the while.

"Willis!"

"Willis!"

The twin digimon came racing towards us, competing with one another to see who could get there first, and who could shout the loudest. Kokomon was loudest, but Gummymon was fastest, so I figured it was a tie. They weren't admitting it though. Their bickering was terrible. The two looked at Willis, and didn't hesitate to jump into his arms, both reaching over to touch the digivice. They were engulfed in bright lights, one in gold, the other in bronze. I couldn't tell which was which in the light, but when the light receeded, Terriermon and Lopmon were in their places.

"It feels so good to have legs again," Terriermon commented.

"I like the arms," Lopmon said, as usual purposely picking something different to start an argument.

"So you like our discover then?" Takeru asked sneaking up behind me. I gasped and put a hand to my heart. "And Gennai thought he hid them so well."

"So it…wasn't the Digital World that gave them back?" I asked, feeling a little down about it.

"Don't know," Hikari said. "All we did really was open the door so they could escape."

"Jerk-nai probably knew that they needed to get to us. I wonder why he's being so adamant about humans leaving everything to his people. I mean, his people aren't exactly digimon, are they?" I complained.

"I don't know," Hikari said, answering my rhetorical question—though I _had_ been curious. "You'd have to ask him."

"I don't want to talk to Jerk-nai," I said.

"Then don't," Meiyomon said. "He's kind of mean."

"Hence _Jerk_-nai," I told him. His eyes lit up with understanding before he started to giggle.

"That's a good joke," he said. The bells on his jester hat chimed as he laughed. It was a rather soothing sound. I wondered if it was part of some hidden power he'd never thought to reveal to us. Laughter. Well, I supposed he _was_ a jester. They live for laughs after all.

It was rather infectious, and soon we were all joining in. Maybe it was the relief of being out of danger, or the feeling of being surrounded by digimon, the weight that lifted off our shoulders when we held our digivices, the tools that could help turn this into a victory. Whatever it was, everything felt so much better when I let it out through laughter.

"I hadn't realized we were in such a humorous predicament," Jerk-nai said as he approached us. "Pray tell, what was this joke?"

"You had to be there," I said with less edge than I'd have liked. The laughter had taken away most of my spite

"Ah," he said, though he looked disappointed. I figured he was just upset that we didn't want to trust him, even with what he thought was a simple joke.

"It was just a play on words," Meiyomon started, before I clamped a hand over his mouth. The poor digimon sometimes lost his mature side to that of a child.

"Hello Taichi," Hikari said, greeting the presence beside Jerk-nai. He was cradling Koromon in his arms, while poor Tsunomon had to be carried by Jerk-nai.

"Hi," he said, though there wasn't much of a glint in his eye. I'd noticed that whenever he talked to or about Hikari, there was this sort of twinkle that appeared in his eyes. That it wasn't there was rather unsettling.

"What's the verdict?" Takeru asked.

"War," Taichi said. "An all out battle, tonight."

And that's where the twinkle had gone.

War. Was that really where the Digital World was headed? Hadn't it always used us digidestined to keep it clean, so that wars like this wouldn't happen?

"Who're we up against?" Michael asked.

"My people," Jerk-nai stressed. "Are going up against the forces that are deteriorating our world. You are to stay here in the Temple."

"You don't have enough men," Taichi stated, as if it were a lasting argument. "Gennai isn't even here."

Wait. Who was this if it wasn't Jerk-nai?

"We haven't any other options," the Jerk-nai lookalike said simply.

"You've got us," Willis said, gesturing to Terriermon and Lopmon. "You haven't got a choice in that matter either."

"And me and Koromon," Taichi said. That was when I noticed him holding his digivice firmly underneath Koromon, as if hiding it from Jerk-nai.

"You are not strong enough," the lookalike tried to protest. I still couldn't figure out who he was, and I felt bad, for being unnecessarily rude to him.

"With the digivices in our hands, and the crests in theirs, we've got plenty of power," Willis said, holding his digivice for the guy to see. He wore a cocky smile, and I had to bite back my laugh when his eyes bulged.

"How?"

"The Digital World wants our help, Mr…" I told him smugly—though I _may_ have been lying.

"You do not remember me?" he asked confused.

"Seeing as I thought you were Jerk-nai…"

"Gennai is our fearless leader," the guy said, sounding affronted by my disrespect. "And we first met in America, in your world, Mimi."

Drat, that meant he knew me. Wait, America… "Benjamin."

"That's right, and though the Digital World seems to want you…" he started

"For now, at least," Willis added, before he could blow a gasket. "Maybe it's just because of this battle."

"Yes, you may fight this battle," Benjamin said. "If the Digital World has decided, we must follow her instructions."

That's right, I thought. We're going to make you and Jerk-nai sweat.

"And what are _we_ supposed to do?" Michael asked, gesturing to Hikari, Takeru, Meiyomon, Tsunomon, himself and me.

"Wait here," he said. He thought we wouldn't fight him on this.

"These things expelled black gears," I reminded him. "Give us a good vantage point, and we might still be able to help."

He glared at me and I sent him a smile. I was challenging him with my eyes. What was he going to say to that? The Digital World had given them to us to use after all.

"There is a point, above the front door, where you will be able to look down on the battle without being seen," he admitted.

"We'll be there," Hikari and Takeru said at once. I smiled brightly at them. They'd fixed their animosity problem, and I couldn't be more thankful that I wouldn't have to do it for them, like I'd promised Sora. There was just too much going on at that moment.

"Be quick," was all he said as he turned and walked away.

Taichi reached over and pulled Hikari into a quick hug, which Willis copied.

"Come back," she said. "Both of you."

"We will," they said with grins on their faces. The thrill of the battle was getting to them. I could only hope that they'd keep their heads. And then they were gone, rushing into the crowd, trying to keep up with Benjamin—who I'd decided was Jerk-nai's second in command.

I looked to Takeru and Hikari, who seemed to have a rather in-depth perspective of the Temple, despite the short time we'd spent there, and they quickly rushed off in a different direction than the others did. They lead us to a doorway, which brought us to the Temple's roof. I felt like a knight preparing my bow for the aerial attack. Only, I was a girl without armour, and my bow was a little piece of digital technology that shot out flashes of light…

I stepped up to the edge and peered down. In the distance I could see at least a hundred creepy shapes along the edge of the forest, no doubt with at least double that still hidden in the forest. I hoped they were _trying_ for that, without the men to back it up. We had Benjamin standing front and centre, with twenty of his guys holding various weapons behind him. Taichi and Willis were directly against the wall we were on top of, with their digimon—now Greymon, Wendigomon and Gargomon—standing between them and Jerk-nai's men.

Then, Benjamin gave the signal, raising his arm slowly into the air. All eyes were on him. Suddenly he flung his arm back to his side.

And our small army were running towards the sea of enemies.

_**Sora:**_

We had been walking along the shore for quite a long time now actually, and every second grew worse than the last. It was like the dark waters were pulling us into their hold, while not actually doing anything. The waves were coming in like any other beach, and splashing around like water should, but it was still pulling. I couldn't be sure that the others were feeling the same thing I was, but to put it short... it felt like someone was pulling on my heart and dragging it down into a pit of despair and loneliness. The waters were so... so pretty—but I felt sick just looking at them... I thought about the time when I was in that dark cave... and the time I was actually in the dark ocean—the time Taichi had walked away from me. When Gennai told me I'd never see Biyomon again—the second time Gennai told me the same thing... The time my mother told me...

"Sora?" Yamato asked, making me realize I had been squeezing his hand very tightly and staring at the water for a while. "Are you okay?" He asked as he looked out to the water trying to see if her could see what I saw. I noticed that the others were further ahead, they were all walking a lot faster than the two of us were.

I shook my head. "No." I admitted. "This water... It's... I'm... I don't want to be here. I just want to go home." Suddenly Yamato threw his arms around me and hugged me. He usually did this when he didn't know what to say, but still wanted to comfort me.

"It's okay." He said, which is also what he usually did, right after the hug. "The water can't hurt you. They pull at every dark, depressing emotion in your body—but so long as you have us around you, they can't hurt you." Which was... not what he usually followed 'it's okay' with.

"I know... but at the same time, it's just so... scary." I told him, "It makes me think of everything bad that's ever happened..."

"Well I'll do the opposite then." He said as our walking slowed again. "How about... going to camp like ten years ago. That was fun! And then jumping right into the digital world? Meeting Yokomon? What about... defeating Apocalymon? Twice? Going around the world and helping the younger digidestined save the world? That was awesome..." Yamato trailed off on a list of everything fun or awesome we'd done in the digital world, and out, and then, "Oh—and when I saved you from falling in that hole... and then you kissed me."

I turned toward him smiling, and rested my head on his shoulder. If anything was going to make me stop being sad about these dark, terrifying waters, it was him... "I love you." I told him smiling. And it was true... I wasn't sure what I'd do without him... probably slip into the waters never to be seen or heard of again.

He looked down at me and smiled. "I love you too Sora." He leaned toward me and kissed me, I instinctually wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Sora!" a voice called snapping me out of the kiss. I turned awkwardly to the group of digidestined walking ahead of us. It had been Miyako that had called. "Stop making out and get over here! We don't want you falling behind!" I felt my face turn red as Yamato snatched my hand from my side and set off at a run to catch up to the others. I found myself laughing as we were running, and whatever was making me laugh seemed to be cutting and piercing right through the dark oceans powers on me.

We slowed down when we reached the others who were all turned around watching us, waiting for us to catch up.

"Sorry..." I told them simply, which caused them all to turn and carry on what they were doing. Betamon was in the lead, with Otamamon right next to him, waddling through the cold sands of the ocean. Miyako was right behind him with Iori and Jou on either side of her. The three of them seemed to be conversing about 'The Plan' whatever that was, but I figured they were trying to figure out when they'd become the hero and save their damsel's. Ken was lagging behind them a bit, holding Wormmon in his arms, talking in a hushed voice to him while Wormmon giggled hysterically. Demiveemon was walking next to Ken looking sad, staring at the ground. I noticed that Tokomon was on Koushiro's shoulder, looking down at his laptop which he had propped open in front of him, probably scanning the sand, or the waters or something like he had to my key.

I instinctively reached to my backpack and looked inside. Yamato peered over as well to see what I was looking at, and I pulled out the long silver key, wrapping my fingers around it. I wondered what it was for... Koushiro's had led us into the Digital World again—what door was mine meant for? Where would it lead us? To one of those unknown worlds? One we'd never seen before?

"I haven't figured it out yet." Koushiro told me, looking over his shoulder. He slowed his walking until Yamato and I were next to him. Tokomon jumped from Koushiro's shoulder onto my head, and then into Yamato's arms. I looked down at my hand as Yamato's fingers escaped mine to catch Tokomon. "The key that I had found was such a simply concept. Place it in the door and there you have it, it opens. But with your key, first we have to figure out what sort of lock it might be for, and then we would have to decipher where that lock might be, and then we'd actually have to get there and open it, not knowing what's beyond said lock." Koushiro's rant made me smile, it brought be back to the reality that we were in the digital world... it reminded me of his original theories—I don't know why... maybe just the sound of his voice on a rant?

"Well I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually." I told him with a smile. "What we have to figure out in the mean time..." I dropped my key back into my backpack and slung the bag over my shoulder.

"Sora—not now..." Koushiro was blushing, and trying not to smile. I laughed at him and patted his head.

"Later then." I smiled at him, referring to us talking later out his love life. He blushed and pressed forward, ignoring me. He settled with walking next to the closest person, which turned out to be Ken.

"Hey Koushrio!" Ken said loudly, "Wormmon thinks—"

"I don't care what Wormmon thinks." Koushiro said flatly.

"Oh... I'm sorry." Wormmon muttered.

"No, don't be." Ken warned, then he turned to Koushiro. "Just because we haven't found Tentomon yet doesn't mean you have to be mean to Wormmon! I was going to say that Wormmon likes your new shirt. That's all."

It was a nice shirt...

"Whatever..." Koushiro said, "Thanks I guess. But I have more important things to do, like figure out what this water's biological structure is made of." Koushiro returned to his laptop, almost in a bragging way as he punched the numbers and formulas into his computer.

"That's wrong." Ken pointed out helpfully, pointing at Koushiro's screen. "You forgot to carry the one."

"Oh!" Koushiro snapped, "That's rich—as if you'd actually understand... you're right." He said slowly. Fixing his mistake. He turned to Ken with a glare of utmost disgust. "At least my brains are real."

"What are you implying?" Ken asked, "That I have a brain made of cardboard? I have a brain too you know!"

"Oh of course you have a brain! I'm not implying anything different." Koushiro said, "But I sat down and learned things. You got knowledge injected into you by an evil arachnid digimon. So... really? I'm the winner here."

"The winner?" Ken said loudly.

"Hurray you win!" Demiveemon cheered.

"No!" Wormmon argued, "He doesn't win! Wait... win what?"

"That's exactly what I'm wondering." Ken added, "This isn't a game Koushiro—I was just trying to help."

"'Trying' is the key word." Koushiro smirked.

"I was _right_!" Ken shouted, exasperatedly. I looked to Yamato who seemed to be enjoying the argument thoroughly. I personally thought it could have ended at any moment... it was my fault too. If I hadn't been stupid and embarrassed Koushiro then he wouldn't have moved to Ken...

"Why are you so excited about being right?" Koushiro asked, eyebrows raised, "Is it your first time?"

Ken bit his bottom lip in anger, and just as he was about to speak, Miyako's voice boomed around us.

"Stop arguing _right now!_" She yelled, "We're not in the position to be arguing! We need to be on the same side! Koushiro! APPOLOGIZE!" She was standing ahead of them, her hands on her hips, sending them both a glare of so much superiority that it actually terrified me.

"Sorry..." Koushiro grumbled.

"Now you Ken." Miyako shot.

"I'm sorry for arguing with you Koushiro." Ken said calmly.

Koushiro nodded slowly and then Miyako turned to follow Betamon again, along the shore of the dark ocean as Koushiro mumbled to himself and walked further away from Ken.

"Betamon how much further?" I heard Miyako say loudly.

"Not much longer now."He said, looking back at us all, "Would you like to take a break?" Miyako shook her head.

"Yes!" Otamamon added from next to Betamon. "I want a food break! I love food!"

Betamon ignored Otamaomn and said, "Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes."

And so we walked.

And we walked...

And we walked.

It turned out to be the longest few minutes of my entire life, but soon enough we were being led into the trees. Jou and Iori were both very nervous, looking around at everything as if it wanted to kill them , or worse—stop them from saving Momoe, Natsuni, and Noriko. Miyako was marching right along as if nothing was wrong at all, but it was clear to me that she was nervous and wanted to curl up in a ball and hide. Ken and Koushiro were both glaring at one another as they followed, and Yamato was talking to Tokomon. I looked back at the waters of the dark ocean and sighed. It felt good to be walking away from them finally—and away from the possibility that creatures might come out of nowhere and attack us...

But they hadn't... where had all of those shadow creatures gone? The ones that had tried to keep me in the Dark Ocean only a few years prior... they just vanished—Tokomon said they would be around all night, and as I looked up into the sky I noted that it was still night, and the moon was still floating up in the sky.

"Where is the temple you speak of?" Koushiro asked. "If it's close like you seem to think then we should be able to see it..."

"You can't!" Demiveemon chimed in with a smile, "You can't see the temple until you're inside the premises."

"Oh... that's very clever." Koushiro said with a small smile, "Gennai has outdone himself."

"It's just up ahead... through these bushes." Betamon smiled running ahead and pulling aside the large bushes. "Look!" He pointed excitedly.

Otamamon, who was standing right in the open bushes, said "That doesn't look very good!"

Miyako turned to the rest of us and pointed. "You'd all better look."

I moved forward with Koushiro and stared at the temple. It was beautiful—but that wasn't what she wanted me to see. She was pointing directly at the large army of dark, slimy creatures heading straight toward it.

_**Mimi:**_

The battle was long and hard, and there wasn't a moment when Michael, Hikari, Takeru or my digivices weren't needed. I thrust it forward once again, allowing the light to engulf one of the strange shadow-like minions of Dragomon and Fanglongmon before it could reach the Temple door. They seemed to be after something. Time and time again we had to vaporize the enemies because they were after the door.

Jerk-nai and his people must have something they wanted.

Unless they weren't after an object, but rather a person… Maybe they wanted Tsunomon and Koromon, for their crests! It didn't add up though, since Greymon was out there on the battlefield, being treated no differently than any one of Jerk-nai's men.

"They don't seem to be depleting," Willis commented. "Shouldn't we have made a dent in their forces by now?"

"Not if the Digital World is being fueled by the Dark Ocean," Hikari commented. "They aren't the same shadow digimon that I saw when I was there. These are different. They aren't Dragomon's people, they're just his pawns."

I was shocked. Hikari was never harsh, but her voice was just then. And she _never_ spoke of her time in the Dark Ocean. Not even with Taichi. I'd heard him complain about it often enough—and I'd barely seen him since we left the Digital World three years prior.

"Alright," I said. "So we're against an unlimited army?"

"Not unlimited," Hikari said. "Just huge. They'll run out eventually, even if we have to defeat Dragomon and Fanglongmon first. It's not unlimited."

"Okay," Takeru said, blasting another one. "So we just keep at this?"

"Until morning," Tsunomon said. "They fight only in the cover of darkness. It feeds their power."

"And there are only _how_ many hours 'til then?" Michael asked.

"I'm tired," Meiyomon said, after blowing up another one.

"Me too little buddy," I told him. "There's only so long I'll be able to keep this up. It's not enough to cause an adrenaline rush, so I'm running on fumes right now."

"Those fumes had better last us then," Tsunomon said. He was feeling left out. Koromon got to digivolve into Greymon, and the twin digimon got to fight too, while Meiyomon could use his bombing abilities to assist us. His bubble blow wasn't effective enough to do anything.

"They have to," I retorted, firing off another blast of light.

"We have to get more people."

I looked down to see one of Jerk-nai's men talking to one of the Gotsumon that were waiting by the door.

"We don't have many more, Ilya," the Gotsumon said.

"There are children in those woods," Ilya said frustrated.

"Kids?" I muttered.

"You don't think they mean…?" Hikari said trailing off as the two of us leaned closer to hear more.

"We can't afford to take that risk," Gotsumon said

"We can't afford to have the chosen children die," Ilya shouted at him.

Hikari and I gasped.

"Yeah, we're fine over here," Michael said testily.

"We totally don't need your help or anything," Takeru added.

"Why don't they take a break then?" Meiyomon asked in his cute, clueless, sort of way.

The boys didn't have a chance to correct him.

"The others are out there," I informed them. "They don't have digimon or digivices."

"They _could_ have digivices," Takeru corrected. "They did go flying through the air. We just don't know if they've reached them yet."

"Those things literally travel at the speed of light," Michael commented. "They definitely have their digivices."

"But will a digivice help them when they're in the thick of things?" Takeru asked the question we'd been avoiding.

"It'll have to," I said with a heavy sigh. There was no way we were going to be allowed out there. "Let's just keep fighting where we are. Every enemy we vaporize, that's one less that can attack the others."

"Wait!" Takeru shouted.

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"Hikari," Takeru said. "She's gone."

"Where is she?" I asked, horrified that I'd missed her disappearance. She'd been right beside me, and I didn't know _when_ she'd snuck away.

"What do we do?" Michael asked.

"We go after her," Takeru said, heading to the door.

"We don't even know where she went," Tsunomon said.

"To the front door, I guess," Meiyomon said. "The guards were given strict instructions not to let any of us out. She won't be able to get passed them."

"Then we go to the door," Takeru said.

"And leave our post?" Tsunomon asked.

"Yes," I said. "If she's gone to the door, we'll be closer to the enemies. Maybe it'll even be easier to get them. We won't be doing nothing the whole time. Besides, Jerk-nai didn't want us doing anything at all."

I let Takeru lead us down from the top of the wall. He needed to feel as though he was doing something, and this way he could. Michael demanded that he be at the back—"To protect you" he'd said. I rolled my eyes, but let him have his way too. I held tight to Meiyomon's hand and my digivice. I had to get myself psyched for the battle, or I'd probably break down crying.

"Hey, you!" Gotsumon shouted when we got close. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To find Hikari," Meiyomon told him.

"You mean she hasn't been here?" Takeru asked frantically. "It's the only way out."

"Are you telling me that one of you've already slipped through my defenses?" Gotsumon asked.

"Knowing Hikari, yeah," Michael said.

"The only people that've left were Ilya's new recruits," Gotsumon said.

"She's gone with them," Takeru declared. And when he said it, it made perfect sense. "And we're Ilya's newest recruits, so get out of our way."

"No," Gotsumon said, standing up taller.

"Move or I'll make you," Meiyomon threatened. There was a glint in his eye that reminded me of before he joined our side. When he was evil.

"I-I can't," Gotsumon stammered.

"Three," Meiyomon said. "Two."

"Alright!" Gotsumon said.

We didn't wait for him to change his mind. Running straight into the battle was _not_ the best choice we'd made that day. We didn't even bother to stop and look at what it was we were getting into. And because of this, I was easily grabbed from behind.

"Let go!" I screamed, kicking my legs out and flailing my arms.

"Mimi," Taichi growled. "Stop that."

"Taichi?" I asked, turning around. I smiled sheepishly at him.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Chasing after Hikari," I mumbled.

"What?"

"Hikari's missing, she's gone after the others," I said louder.

"Hikari's missing!" Taichi shouted. Willis stopped shouting encouragements at his digimon and turned to stare at us in horror.

"Where'd she go?" he asked.

"Mimi says she's out there," Taichi told him, pointing towards the widespread battle going on in front of the Temple.

"Then we'd better find her," Willis said. "Wendigomon, Gargomon! We've got a new mission, find Hikari and bring her back."

"Right," they said in sync.

"Greymon, you too," Taichi said, running to his digimon, who reached down to lift him up onto his shoulder. I saw him send a glare in Willis' direction, as if it were Willis' fault that Hikari was so stubborn.

I relaxed, knowing that Taichi and Willis were going to take care of things. Takeru didn't look as pleased as I was, but he relented, staying by the wall and doing the job we'd been doing the entire time. Michael was happy. He hadn't liked the idea of breaking Jerk-nai's rules. I personally couldn't see how he wasn't angered by Jerk-nai, but then, most people were just annoyed…maybe it was only me that had a problem…

But I would sort that out later, because Taichi, Willis and their digimon didn't get very far, before being attacked again by large groups of these slimy, creepy…_things_.

"They'll never make it through," Takeru commented.

"I know," I said sounding disappointed…because I was.

"They'll be keeping these things busy," Takeru added nonchalantly.

"They will," Meiyomon agreed.

"So they won't see us leaving, will they?" he finished.

"Are you suggesting I let you run off into those woods?" I asked, horrified.

"Not a suggestion," he said. "I'm telling you that's what I'm going to do."

"But—"

"No Mimi, we don't have time. She's just one person, with just one digivice. She'll need all the help she can get to reach the others," he said.

"Gennai told us it was only safe here," Michael told us.

"Gennai also said we'd never be back here…_two_ different times," Takeru said. "He's been wrong before."

"While I'm sure this particular point has _some_ merit, I'm going to have to agree with Takeru," I said.

"I'm going," Takeru stated. "Come with me if you want, but I'm leaving now."

I thought about it. Briefly. About staying in the Temple, away from these enemies, but then Yamato's face came to mind. He would be chasing his little brother, given the chance. And I couldn't let Takeru go alone. Yamato would never forgive me, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.

"Let's go," I said.

"Yay!" Meiyomon cheered. Michael grumbled, but followed behind us. We were shooting slimy creeps left and right, trying to keep Meiyomon from blowing anything up. It would draw them all straight to us if he had.

Meiyomon tripped over the root of a tree, and the creepy things jumped at him. We struggled to get them off of him, using both our hands and our digivices.

"Go boom, Meiyo, go boom!" I shouted at him, as another one of them latched onto me, dragging me away from Meiyomon, before I could beam him.

"BOOM!" he shouted childishly, and the slimy creeps exploded, slime landed everywhere.

"We've got to go," Takeru said. "Keep moving. They had to have heard that."

"Oh, I did."

We turned and came face to face with SkullSatamon. I let out a loud scream.

"There's no need for that," he said, preparing an attack in the palm of his hands.

"On three," Michael suggested in a low voice. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tsunomon, Meiyomon and Takeru nod slowly.

"One," he said.

SkullSatamon looked at us all. "Eenie meenie miney, moe…"

"Two," Takeru said.

"I choose you," SkullSatamon decided, turning his palm to face me.

"Three!" I shouted.

"Bubble-blow!" Tsunomon cried.

"Boom!" Meiyomon shouted.

"Ahh!" I screamed, as the three of us turned our digivices at him.

"Run!" Takeru said, when SkullSatamon had been effectively blinded. We weaved in and out of the trees, trying to put as many obstacles between us as possible, but there wasn't much to work with. He was going to catch us if we didn't get help. And soon.

_**Sora:**_

So that explained why the dark creatures hadn't been attacking us lately... it was because they were all accumulating around the temple... I couldn't see what was happening well, but from what I _could_ see I had gathered that the creatures from the Dark Ocean were advancing upon this temple that Tokomon and the others had told us about—and the residents of the temple were fighting back... I thought I recognized one of the digimon there to be Greymon, but I knew that was unlikely. But it didn't matter _who_ was fighting, all that mattered was that we weren't. The others were there... or so Betamon thought... and if they were then... well... we should have been helping them fight.

Before I could announce my thoughts Miyako practically growled at the advancing army and then turned her intense stare to Ken who nodded. He held up his digivice and jumped to his feet, tossing Wormmon into the air.

"**Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon!**" As Wormmon flew through the air he shone a bright colour and then morphed into the large bug like creature that was Stingmon. He landed next to Ken who was looking up at him.

"Let's get out there and help." Ken smiled at him.

"I want to come too!" Otamamon announced from right next to Ken, half hiding in the bushes. "I've been avoiding the scary things as much as I could... but you Digidestined have been so kind to me—and you're my family know and stuff... so..."

Ken smiled down at Otamamon and held his arms open for him. Otamamon giggled as he leapt from the ground and into Ken's arms. "Now let's go." Ken turned to Stingmon who reached down and wrapped his arm around Ken and shot off without another word.

Miyako turned to the rest of us and sighed, looking back and forth to the three digimon we had left. Betamon surprisingly looked more helpful... She finally shook her head and turned to the rest of us. "We have our digivices!" She announced, "Sure our digimon are still out there somewhere, but we can still help keep the creatures back with these."

Jou and Iori jumped to their feet, both looking uncharacteristically determined to be running out into the battle that could end their lives.

"This better not last too long." Jou said flatly, looking down at the digivice in his hand. "If we spend too much time here then Momoe... well—let's just get this over with."

"I agree..." Iori said, "I mean if all of us just stand there with our digivices out, then the creatures from the Dark Ocean won't be able to affect us—or even advance! This shouldn't take any longer than five minutes or so!"

"Don't get your hopes up Iori." Yamato said slowly, looking down at Tokomon who was glaring toward the battlefield, still wrapped up in Yamato's arms. "You know as well as I do that there's always something that screws over our plans. We can't go out there hoping to be home in time for dinner. This isn't going to be easy—or fun."

"It looks pretty fun to me!" Betamon declared, a glint in his eyes... that was also very uncharacteristic for Betamon who, last I saw, pretended he had forgotten how to digivolve to avoid a battle against a simple mushroom in the past, but I wasn't going to question him, if he wanted to help I was alright by that.

"I think it would be a lot more fun if I could digivolve." Demiveemon muttered, staring after Stingmon and Ken.

"Well let's stop talking about all of this and get out there." I declared suddenly. "I want to find the others! I want to help!"

"I agree with Sora one hundred percent." Koushiro said, closing his laptop and placing it in his backpack.

"Why don't you just leave that here?" I asked him, "it'll be safer for it."

"I will not be leaving my laptop anywhere." He said flatly. "My computer is like my child. Would you hide your first born child in a bush after taking into a different dimension? I didn't think so!" He was very protective about that thing... but he didn't have to yell—I was just trying to help.

"Ken looks like he's doing good out there!" Miyako pointed out. We all looked through the bushes to see Stingmon and Otamamon fighting the creatures off as a strong beam of magenta light was shining around like a super strength flashlight.

"Well we can change that... can't we?" We all froze at the sound of the voice behind us. Turning slowly we all came face to face with digimon that I was unfamiliar with.

"Daemon." Miyako and Iori said as one. I had heard that name before—when was it? Oh! That was right! Daemon was the digimon who gathered an army of fallen angel type digimon and tried to destroy Ken—but Ken opened a portal to the Dark Ocean and trapped him there... or that was the story I had heard anyway—and it made sense that he would be here... this _was_ afterall the dark ocean.

I jumped to my feet and dragged Yamato up with me. Koushiro staggered up after us until we were all standing around the evil digimon who was glaring down at us.

Daemon was wearing a long black and red cloak with a dark hood that casted long shadows over his face. His horns were curled and dirty, and his wings were long and violet. I could barely see the golden eyes piercing through the darkness and glaring at us, but I knew now was the time to run... but I couldn't convince my legs of that.

"So we meet again." Daemon said, standing perfectly still. "Well digidestined, this has been fun... but the one I'm really here for is little Ken Ichijouji."

Miyako gasped and looked quickly over her shoulder, nervously.

"So step aside." Daemon ordered. None of us moved, but as Daemon opened his wings and let out a roar of anger Betamon lept forward and tackled him. Daemon simply smacked the digimon out of the way. I watched in horror as Betamon landed roughly on the ground and rolled a little. I was relieved to find that he was perfectly okay as he jumped back to his feet and growled. "I suppose I will make you all move then." Daemon raised his hands in anger.

"Run!" Miyako ordered loudly, grabbing Koushiro's arm and dragging him. Betamon was following them closely, and they were all ahead of the rest of us who were running as one. Demiveemon had leapt into Yamato's arms and he was holding on tightly to Tokomon who was watching Daemon behind us.

I risked looking back and instantly wished that I hadn't. Daemon was soaring across the grass toward us, down the hill we had just run down to get away from him. His hands were glowing with flames sparking around him and suddenly he shot a large fireball toward us.

"Duck!" I screamed, pulling Yamato and Iori, the two closest to me, down to the ground. Miyako and Koushiro also fell to the ground but Jou kept running. "Jou!" I yelled as the fireball soared over our heads and flew toward him. Iori was quick to jump to his feet and run after him.

The fireball landed near Jou and exploded, the ground burst into flames as bits of dirt, grass, and stones flew everywhere. Jou had been blasted aside by the force of the explosion and had landed roughly on the grass. Iori slid to a stop when he caught up to him and helped him easily to his feet and the two ran off.

"I shall go warn Ken of the impending danger." Koushiro said flatly, clearly looking past his differences with the boy at least for the moment. "You all should attempt to keep Daemon at bay while I do so. Ken should at least know what's coming before he is murdered brutally." Miyako slapped Koushiro's arm and shoved him along his way. Koushiro set off at a run, Betamon right behind him.

Yamato pulled me to my feet and we both spun around to face Daemon who was standing only a few feet away. Instinctively I shone my digivice in his face, blinding him momentarily. Bubbles erupted from all around Yamato as the two digimon in his arms attempted to obey Koushiro's orders, but none of it seemed to be working, until Miyako jumped between the two of us and punched Daemon straight in the face.

"You stay away from my boyfriend or face the wrath of the Inoe!" She roared as Daemon staggered backward. Daemon snarled at Miyako who just laughed, "Want some more?" She asked, kicking high in the air toward Daemon's face. Daemon was quicker this time and raised his hands, catching her foot in mid kick. He pulled hard on her foot and she fell to the ground, her foot still in his clawed hands. He flapped his wings and began flying as Miyako shot me a look of pure terror. I was quick to lunge forward and grab her hands as Daemon flew with her through the battlefield.

"Sora!" Yamato yelled from behind me. "Sora!"

I looked down in fear as Daemon's heavy wings flapped, sending gusts of wind down upon Miyako and I. Yamato's face was etched with horror, so I smiled briefly at him, knowing that comforting him could wait. I was going to help Miyako. As I looked up at her I noticed that she was almost crying, her glasses were out of place, and her hair was whipping around wildly in the wind. Her backpack was slipping down her arms a little and her sundress was revealing that she was, thankfully, wearing shorts underneath. I noticed though that the goggles that were placed upon her head were completely still, not budging an inch... even the goggles thought she was a great leader.

"Put us down!" I screamed at Daemon as Miyako gripped me tightly. I looked down and saw that we were flying past Ken now... where was he taking us? "I said... Put. Us. _Down._" I repeated with a very angry edge to my voice.

"Sora... I'm scared." Miayko said looking into my eyes. I nodded to her to imply that I was also scared. The wind was starting to hurt as it whipped and sliced at my skin, and my nerves were getting the better of me, causing me to sweat... my grip on Miyako's hands was slipping... "Sora..." Miyako said, worry taking control of her voice.

"I told you to put us down!" I screamed up at Daemon.

"Okay." He said simply. At first I thought I had won—but as Miyako began to scream and we both began to fall I realized that it wasn't exactly how I had hoped it would be. We were falling down upon a battlefield of explosions and evil digimon, and to top it off it was so dark I couldn't even see the ground or anything around us—the worst place to fall ever! But what was worse was that I wasn't sure we'd be okay. I had learned last time we were here that the digital world didn't want us to die... it wouldn't let us die. But now, not only was it tainted by the dark ocean... but it also hadn't called us back like it usually had. We had forced ourselves back in... maybe it really didn't want us anymore—maybe we weren't supposed to be here... maybe we were supposed to die?

Stingmon caught us simply as we fell, and we both looked to him with smiled plastered on our faces as he dropped to the ground. He landed with a soft thud and let us slip through his arms.

"Wait... where is Ken?" Miyako asked him suddenly, her smile falling fast.

"He'll be fine for a moment—are the two of you okay?" Stingmon asked.

"Daemon wants to kill Ken." Miyako said quickly, "Go! Go save him! _Now!_"

Stingmon was gone before Miyako had even finished talking, soaring through the air back towards Ken. I noticed Daemon dropping from the sky. Stingmon was going to beat him back... so that was at least somewhat of a relief. I looked around us and noticed that there was a wall of digimon, all of them fighting the creatures that were coming after them. The Dark creatures were climbing the digimon wall as if they were some sort of playground equipment. I ran toward them, Miyako following me and squeezed my way between a Monzemon and a Drimogemon, holding my digivice at the ready.

Red light exploded around me and the creatures all backed off from the digimon nearby. Iori's plan would have worked if we were all ready to help and standing guard. I noticed Miyako copying me a few digimon over, her turquoise light burning the Creatures. I looked down the line and saw silver and yellow lights shining around practically blinding me even from this distance piercing through the dark night. Iori and Jou were doing the same as we were.

"Sora!" Miyako called. "Is that Hikari?"

I looked toward her and saw that she was pointing out into the battlefield where a tall digimon with batwings was standing over none other than Hikari herself. And even worse than the digimon standing in front of Hikari was the digimon standing behind her looking like a cross between a dragon and a blue squid... I knew who it was immediately. Dragomon.

Before I could even answer her the two of us were running through the creatures that were trying their hardest to reach up and grab at us, their slimy hands snatching toward us every now and then, only to recoil as the lights from the digivices touched them. My heart was pounding... I'd never been so willing to risk my life for someone, but I knew how scared Hikari would be—the two digimon who had caused her the most grief were around her—I wasn't sure why she was in this battlefield all alone, but what I did know was that if Hikari was here that meant the others were here too and we'd be a group again—something I'd been hoping for since we'd split up.

As we came nearer to Hikari and Ladydevimon who was standing menacingly over her I noticed that Hikari was crying.

"She's never going to see you again." Ladydevimon said, looking down at Hikari, who was hiding her head in her hands, trying to ignore the digimon, "She's mine now... I guess the bond between partners isn't as strong as you'd like for it to be."

"Hey!" Miyako growled, "Get lost losers!" Dragomon and Ladydevimon turned their attention toward us as Hikari slowly looked up and smiled, wiping tears out of her eyes.

"Sora... Miyako!" She said brightly, turning her attention toward Ladydevimon. "I might not have Gatomon yet... but I've got my friends—and really... that's what I need right now. They'll help me. They'll help me take you down... and they'll help me rescue Gatomon."

"Gatomon is dead." Ladydevimon said flatly.

Hikari gasped as Miyako and I hurried toward her. "Now we run." Miyako said quickly.

"Not so fast." The grumbling voice of Dragomon said from behind us. "My Hikari won't be leaving me again... not ever." We looked back to see him raise his arm in anger. We all screamed as he brought it down toward us.

_**Mimi:**_

Thank heavens for small mercies. That was certainly true for us as we ran through the trees. There was a small crevice that weaved multiple paths in the earth that we could slip into, leaving SkullSatamon none the wiser about our location.

"That was close," Michael whispered, breathing heavily.

"Too close for comfort," Takeru agreed.

"Now what?" I asked, being sure to keep myself against the wall of the crevice, in case SkullSatamon came back.

"Why don't we just wait here until morning?" Michael asked.

"Hikari could be dead by then," Takeru said shaking his head.

"_We_ could be dead by then if we don't," Michael countered. It was a valid point, but I couldn't in good conscience leave Hikari to fend for herself; it was dangerous out there! And she'd just recovered from the longest sickness I'd ever heard of…and was wanted by Dragomon—last we'd heard he'd wanted her to repopulate his 'people' in any case.

"I'll go with you," I told Takeru. "Meiyomon, you could stay here with Michael if you want to."

"No," Meiyomon said. "I'll go too. It is so exciting to be chased like that!"

"Sure…" I said sarcastically. I honestly didn't understand that digi-kid sometimes.

"It would be best, I think, if we headed back the way we came," Takeru suggested. "We may have missed her while we were running, and SkullSatamon isn't likely to come back this way real soon."

"Avoiding SkullSatamon and saving Hikari? Sounds like my kind of plan," I said with a grin. I watched as he pulled himself out of the crevice, followed by Michael. They both reached down to give me a hand, and Meiyomon seemed to float his way out. He'd never stop surprising me.

We took off at a fast pace, not daring to run—it caused too much noise, and we didn't want to be chased again. It wasn't long though, before we were freezing where we stood, yet again.

"Run!"

"I am, my body can only move so fast."

"Move faster!"

"Like you can talk, you're getting a lift."

"Daemon won't be too far behind us."

"That's only if he even caught up with our trail."

"I'm fairly certain Ken is right on this one Betamon. Daemon doesn't seem to _need_ a trail to find his target."

"Of all the times you agree with me!"

The voices were so familiar; my heart was almost aching with hope. Takeru and Meiyomon looked prepared for a fight, it sounded like Daemon was on his way. Michael, however, looked more hopeful than I felt. If this wasn't some sort of trick, Betamon was out there. He was so close to his digital partner. I was happy for him, but at the same time, I was wondering when was it my turn?

"Over here!" Michael yelled. "Betamon!"

"_Michael_," Takeru hissed. "It could be a trap."

"I don't care," he said. "Not if it's Betamon."

"Michael? Michael where are you?"

"Here!" Michael shouted again.

A green and blue amphibious digimon came hopping into view. His eyes lit up when they landed on Michael, and Michael was so excited. They ran at each other, and with shouts of happiness were suddenly in each others' embrace. If we weren't possibly risking our lives by standing there, I would have commented about the genuine quality that this reunion possessed that was missing during a lot of Michael's drama classes.

Ken suddenly dropped out of the sky, before I could even remind him of our situation. Stingmon was carrying him, and he was holding onto Otamamon tightly.

"Hi guys," Ken said with an exhausted smile. "What's new?"

"A lot," Takeru said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I can see that," Ken said laughing with him.

I was going to comment that this too was a potential risk, but that though was blown from my mind, when Koushiro came running up to us, stopping just after he'd passed by me.

"You run too fast," he complained, breathing rather heavily, making sure his laptop was secure on his back. It was just so typically _Koushiro_ that I couldn't help but laugh.

"Mimi?" he said, his eyes widening as he noticed my presence. He was coming toward me instantly. It took only two steps, but when he got to me he did something I never thought he'd _ever_ do: he hugged me! He actually hugged me. Granted it was using only one arm, but any thought about the battles and the dangers were history as he clung to me. I couldn't help but hug him back, burrowing my face into his neck. It was just something I'd hoped he'd do for such a long time, that I'd given up hope completely.

"You're okay," he said breathily. "I thought…Betamon implied… No. It doesn't matter. You're here, you're safe."

"I am," I said. "Took your advice to heart."

He laughed a little, pulling away just enough to look at my face. I smiled brightly at him, noting his relieved expression. His eyes flitted down to my smile, and then back to my eyes, only to fall to my lips once again.

I could barely contain my excitement. He _finally _got the hint! And he actually _liked_ me. I was all set to lean in so he could lay a big kiss on me, but Ken cleared his throat rather loudly, right at that moment.

I almost groaned until my memories of the past twenty-four hours came flashing back to me. I couldn't believe I'd been so stupid. A kiss—though guaranteed to be wonderful—was not worth our deaths if we were caught unaware. But at the same time…it was disappointing how quickly he got over the moment. It was like fingers snapped and he didn't care about me that way anymore. He didn't even glance back at me. He and Takeru were discussing what had happened since we came into the Digital World.

I distracted myself by flitting my eyes through the trees. If Ken, Koushiro and the digimon were being followed, I wanted to know when the inevitable attack would arrive.

"I've been trying to figure it out, but I haven't had much of a chance," Koushiro was saying. "And my laptop—"

He didn't even see it coming.

I slapped his shoulder as hard as I could. He was bringing up his _laptop_ so soon after our almost-moment? Did he just enjoy torturing me with that _thing_?

His eyes bulged much more than I thought they would, and he seemed to be biting back a painful scream. He couldn't hold it all back though, and let out a strangled gasp instead.

"How about we don't hit there just now?" he asked, undoubtedly in a lot of pain.

"What happened?" Takeru asked before I could

"It's not important right now," he said. "We have to get moving."

"You made me promise to be careful," I told him. "And you go and disregard that same advice?"

"I didn't have much of a choice in the matter, to be honest," he said avoiding the accusation in my glare.

"Oh no," I tell him in my no-nonsense tone. "We're going to hear this _now_."

"Wait," Takeru interrupted, much to Koushiro's relief and my displeasure. "Is that…Dragomon?"

Ken's head whipped towards the giant shape not too far in the distance. I shuddered. He didn't look very good, he looked mean, ruthless and quite possibly like the worst enemy we'd ever come across in the history of our adventures. He was large and lurking, and seemed to be compiled of equal parts squid and dragon.

"Eew…" I couldn't help but say.

"He's attacking," Meiyomon pointed out.

"The question is what," Stingmon agreed, flying a little higher to get a better view.

"It's Hikari!" Takeru shouted, running towards our newest enemy without a second's thought.

"Miyako and Sora are there as well," Stingmon informed us. My eyes widened in horror. Three of our friends were up against that thing?

"Let's go," Ken told Stingmon, still holding Otamamon—who looked too petrified to speak—in his arms. Stingmon gave him a brief nod, before lifting him up into the air, flying him towards the battle.

"We can help too Michael," Betamon said.

"Right!"

"**Betamon digivolve to… Seadramon!**"

"Attack!" Michael cried dramatically, jumping onto Seadramon's back. Meiyomon, Koushiro and I clambered on as fast as we could, lest we be left behind.

"Gotcha."

I screamed. SkullSatamon came back for us! Takeru had said he wouldn't, and though I couldn't really fault him that, I couldn't believe that—with our luck—I'd believed it for a second.

I thrust my digivice towards him, letting out a blast of bright green light. It was quickly followed by Koushiro's violet light, and Michael's white. I wasn't sure if it hit SkullSatamon, and I was glad that Seadramon hadn't stuck around to find out. We were rushing through the forest towards the creepiest, evilest digimon _ever_, and I couldn't help but feel _relieved_. I couldn't fathom the feeling. SkullSatamon would surely be nothing in comparison to Dragomon, but that was how I felt.

"Stay away from my sister!"

Taichi and Willis, both on their digimons' shoulders—Willis on Wendigomon's—came hurdling what I hoped to be SkullSatamon behind us. I couldn't see much, but judging by some of the smack-talk Taichi was getting into, our team was winning. When the smoke cleared from their initial attack, I could see SkullSatamon looking a little worse-for-wear caught in between Gargomon, Wendigomon and Greymon.

"Attack!" Willis shouted like a battle cry.

"Bunny Pummel!"

"Koko Crusher!"

"Nova Blast!"

Seadramon even added his own ice attack just for good measure. Everything seemed to still as we waited for the smoke to clear again, to see if we'd won.

"Ha!" I cried happily upon discovering that SkullSatamon was no more.

"We did it?" Michael asked, hardly believing it to be true.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Koushiro started. "But the battle if far from won. Takeru and Ken have embarked on a ridiculous quest to defeat Dragomon with only a rookie and a champion…"

"What?" Willis and Taichi yelled in surprise.

"You attacked the wrong digimon, Taichi," Meiyomon said. "Dragomon is the one currently attacking your sister."

"Then who screamed?" Taichi asked, cocking his head in confusion.

"Mimi," Meiyomon said. "Now, let us go before Hikair, Sora and—or—Miyako are killed by the great sea monster!"

Seadramon didn't need any more prompting. With Greymon, Wendigomon and Gargomon running alongside him, he slithered through the trees at a record pace.

"Here come the reinforcements." Dragomon's voice was deep and gravelly. And he did not sound happy. He could see us from above the trees, foiling our surprise arrival. "I must teach them what it means to interrupt my fun."

"No you don't!" Miyako yelled.

"Miyako, don't say anything," Ken screamed at her. Dragomon's attention was thankfully taken from us…only to be placed solely on Miyako.

"They didn't do anything to you and neither did we," she shouted, not heeding Ken's advice.

"Oh no," Meiyomon gasped, jumping from Seadramon's back, and running towards Miyako.

"I see I must first teach you that lesson," Dragomon said, looking intently at her. His eyes started glowing, I could practically _feel_ the energy coming off of him. And then the light from his eyes shot towards Miyako.

"No!" Meiyomon shouted. He ran faster, and then he took a long, running jump, spinning in the air as he did so. As he spun, his arms and legs elongated, he gained a good two feet of height. His clothing changed from pajamas into a bright jester costume that actually matched his hat. I barely remembered seeing him like this.

He'd digivolved.

He shot his hand out in front of him, still running, first towards the sky and then towards Miyako. She was suddenly engulfed in a pink pillar, which took her away from harm's way, and brought her to Meiyomon's side.

"Are you alright," I could hear him say. His voice was deeper, but had a sort of jovial tone that didn't make sense in this situation. I figured it came with being a jester. He was no longer my little buddy. He looked like a man.

"Thanks to you I am," she replied shakily.

"Let's show this _Dragomon_ who's boss!" Taichi shouted after a moment of silence. Dragomon still looked stunned. His prey had vanished before he could even properly disintegrate her.

The digimon all charged in for the attack, while us digidestined spread out. Takeru had run to get Hikari, hope and light were united again. They took the battle front on Dragomon's left side, while Sora and Ken took him from behind. Willis and Taichi were on his right, and that left Koushiro, Miyako and I to spread out to keep his attention from the front. We all raised our digivices, hoping beyond hope that it would be enough to beat him.

The light hit him straight on…

…but it wasn't enough. He didn't even flinch. Not even Hikari's did any real damage, and she used to glow like a light-bulb.

Dragomon started laughing. Low and dark. He was toying with us!

"One by one the resistance will crumble," he said looking directly at me. I was front and centre, but I hadn't thought it would make that much of a difference, not when I hoped the lights from our digivices would take him down.

"Then we'll go out fighting," I told him, forcing my voice to not crack.

His lights didn't glow this time, he didn't gather the energy. He didn't give me time to prepare. He just attacked.

"Mimi!" Koushiro shouted. I wanted to tell him to stay where he was, but I couldn't find my voice. I could only stare at the blast headed my way. He tackled me to the ground, forcing his laptop into my hands. "Keep it safe," he muttered. He was between me and the blast now. There wasn't time for us to evade it. It was too large and too close.

"What about you?" I whispered.

"Sora knows all my secrets," he joked. "Ask her later."

He used his body as a shield, trying to block as much of me as he could from the blast, on the off chance it would help me survive.

I couldn't stop the tears that sprung to my eyes. It had only been seconds since the blast was shot. Only minutes from our almost-moment. A moment that would never be repeated or improved upon…

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the blast.

"It should have hit by now," Koushiro commented.

"You think?" I asked hesitantly.

"Judging by the distance and speed which it was travelling…I would say so," he said.

We waited a couple seconds more, before I risked a peek over his shoulder. There, standing before us was yet another Jerk-nai lookalike.

"Jackie?" I asked, guessing the only other name I could remember from the world-saving-escapade of 2002.

"No, my dear child," he said. "I am Gennai."

_Jerk-nai_! He came and saved us. I almost forgave him in that instant. I would've hugged him if I wasn't still tucked in Koushiro's arms, with my own wrapped around an old laptop.

"Thanks Jerk…Gennai," I said sending him a small smile.

"We need to get away from here now," he announced. Dragomon looked even more furious than before. "Daemon and LadyDevimon are on our tail."

"I'll fix that," Meiyomon said. His eyes glazed over, and his hands rose. Three pillars of pink light shot down from the sky. I assumed two of them to be the location of Daemon and LadyDevimon. The third encased Dragomon in its light. And then the pillars shot off into the distance, far away from us.

"What did you do that for?" Taichi asked.

"If we could have defeated them, I wouldn't have had to," Meiyomon said simply.

So the enemies lived to wreak havoc another day…

And I found I couldn't bring myself to be as upset about that as Taichi was.

_**Sora:**_

I was still staring at the place where Dragomon had been… he… was just gone! So sudden and random—and then… poof.

Would he be coming back? Probably… would I be ready for him though? None of that mattered though… what really mattered was that we were all back together and no one was too severely hurt—hopefully. It was good to see Gennai again too! Although I was a little confused as to why Mimi had called him a Jerk…

Miyako had her arms wrapped tightly around Ken, her goggles slightly crooked on her head, Mimi was handing Koushiro back his laptop, Willis, Takeru and Taichi were all crowding around Hikari, and so that left me standing alone amongst the digimon and Gennai himself.

"We should get back to the temple." Gennai said as Greymon, Wendigomon, Gargomon, Stingmon and Seadramon all returned to their rookie forms. "We have a lot to discuss. Agumon, come with me."

"Right…" Agumon said slowly. "I think we first need to figure out why Dragomon chose this moment to attack."

"It's because of them." Gennai said motioning to his surroundings. I wasn't sure, but it seemed almost as though he was meaning… us. The digidestined.

"Oh give it up." Mimi snapped, turning away from Koushiro and storming toward Gennai. "I'm happy you saved me and all—but for the name of all that is holy in this world… shut… up."

"Mimi…" Miyako said a little awkwardly. Her voice was confused, and I had to admit, I felt the exact same way as she sounded.

"You're a very loud little girl and I'm sure you have your reasons for hating me…" Gennai said slowly, "But I'm trying to save you—I'm trying to save the entire world! _Both_ worlds."

"Well uh…" Ken said slowly, "There are more than two worlds… obviously…"

Gennai ignored him and continued. "I am saving you all! You have to leave within the hour."

"What?" I gasped along with a few of the others.

"There's no way I'm leaving." Mimi snapped. "I'm staying right here until I find Palmon!"

"Well that's unfortunate." Gennai said, "I suppose I'll _drag _ you through the portal back to Earth then."

I had to admit, I was even more confused now than I had been a few moments ago. "Can someone _please_ explain what's going on?"

"Gennai wants to kick us out of the digital world for no good reason." Taichi informed me simply, stepping toward me.

"He's being a total Jerk." Willis added.

"And he actually thinks that we're going to obey him." Mimi said, a smirk on her face. "We're not leaving."

"Yeah…" Takeru agreed with a nod. "Especially not after what you told us about Hikari."

"What about Hikari?" Ken asked quickly.

"She was sick because the worlds were closed off." Takeru explained to Ken.

"He said I could have dropped dead at any moment." Hikari explained. "Any of us could."

"And you want us all to go back?" Miyako asked Gennai, practically laughing at the ridiculousness of his statement. "No way Buster!" She pointed to the goggles on her head. "See these? Yeah… they make me in charge. No offense guys, but I don't _care_ what you vote. I'm making my decision right now. We're not leaving the digital world."

Gennai looked like he was ready to scream at every last one of us. "You don't understand!"

"Oh we understand—" Mimi tried.

"No." Gennai cut her off loudly, "You don't. You're all too young to fully understand the danger of you being here. Sure if you all stay here Hikari will stay healthy and your life will be safer—but if you don't leave within an hour than the two worlds will combine. Tomorrow is the first of August… the day when the boundaries are at their weakest—and by sundown tomorrow the two worlds—Earth and the Digital World—will become one unless you all leave. All of you. And if that happens then every human being in the entire world will be in danger. Are you really willing to put the lives of your family and friends in danger just so you can have a few more hours of fun?" No one spoke after that. There was a long silence, and so Gennai continued, "Hikari, I am sorry about your health. Really I am, but the chances of you dying from this sickness is highly unlikely! It would be best for you all to just leave back to the human world to keep your families alive."

Mimi looked the most shocked. She was biting her lip, not sure of how to respond… I could tell she and Gennai had not had the most friendly of times here together, but she could clearly see where he was coming from now, and there was nothing more to say. Gennai had a point… and as much as I wanted to see Biyomon again soon, I knew I had to leave… to save Yamato's dad—to save my friends… to save my parents…

I could tell the others were starting to believe him as well. What confused me the most though was why Koushiro, of all people hadn't said anything. He was a very opinionative person and yet he had nothing to say. He looked flustered and confused.

"Well…" Takeru spoke up finally, "Even if we wanted to leave… it wouldn't do any good. Daisuke and Kurayami are still out there somewhere… looking for—"

"Her mother…" Hikari said slowly, "We need to get her out too." Kurayami and Daisuke had wandered off on their own? Why? What was the purpose in that? I wished we hadn't split up… I felt so out of the loop already. Gennai nodded and looked toward Agumon.

"That was another thing I had to talk to you about." He said, "There is a woman roaming this world as if it were her home… and unless we can rid the dimension of her for good we will never be able to split up the two worlds… and the Dark Ocean will forever be part of this world, _and_ Earth." Agumon nodded and looked to Taichi, worried. It didn't sound like an easy task… I wasn't sure how Kurayami's mother had managed to find herself in this world at all… but I was almost glad she was here… that meant that… while searching for her we might be able to find Biyomon, or Yokomon or whoever she was right then…

"We should find Tsunomon and the other council members." Agumon decided finally. "We should discuss our next plan of action."

"That's a wonderful idea." He turned toward the now teenage like Meiyomon and smiled weakly, "Would you mind taking us to the temple?"

"It would be my pleasure." He smirked as he snapped his fingers. I was surrounded by the familiar sensation of being torn away from the ground and thrown through the air in a tube of pink light only to be tossed toward the ground with the others falling around me.

"Agumon," Gennai said straightening his clothing, and sheathing his weapon, pretending that he hadn't just been Mon-handled by Meiyomon. "Follow me… we have to make an announcement." I looked around at the beautiful surroundings… I could tell that it had been recently torn apart as some of the bricks were broken and crumbled on the ground and the cloth ceilings from the strange market stalls were ripped and singed. The demons had managed to get into here? They had managed to find their way past the guard and into the Temple? Gennai didn't look surprised at all.

Agumon nodded and followed Gennai, grabbing Taichi's arm, dragging him along, Gennai opened his mouth to object but Taichi sent him a glare of total disgust and so Gennai allowed it.

"If we're just waiting for our plan of action…" Michael said slowly, "Do you guys mind if I spend a little time with Betamon...?"

Mimi shook her head and smiled at him. "Go ahead," She said.

"Thanks," He smiled back, "Call me over if anything interesting happens!" And then he was off, running with Betamon through the cobblestoned streets.

"Michael?" I heard a voice ask from afar.

We all turned to see Jou and Iori rushing in through the Temple door looking like they had just been beaten up by a very angry bully—and I realized that they probably had.

Jou and Iori saw us and rushed toward us quickly. "What happened?" Jou asked quickly, "They all just… vanished!"

"The demons!" Iori filled in, "There we were… about to be mauled by some demons and then they were just… gone!"

"I guess when Meiyomon made Dragomon disappear… they all did." Willis suggested.

"I think that would be a correct assumption." Koushiro said, finally speaking up. "I only wonder where he has gone and how long it will take for him to get back, it just seems—"

"M-Meiyomon?" Iori cut into Koushiro's rant. "You digivolved?" I looked over my shoulder as Hikari, Takeru and Willis parted ways for Meiyomon to step through in his new attire. He smiled at Iori and waved as Iori ran toward him and hugged him. "That's awesome!" Iori laughed into Meiyomon's shoulder.

"I thought so too!" Meiyomon smiled. "It's good to see you again! Did you miss me?"

"Of course I did!" Iori said, "You're my only sibling…"

I was happy for them, finding each other again, but I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Biyomon, and at this moment, more importantly: Yamato. I had been torn away from him in the midst of the battle… he could have been anywhere! What if he was hurt… I tried to push the thought from my mind but I found that impossible as Tsunomon bounded around the corner looking distraught.

"Oh there you all are!" He cried out bouncing toward us and into Takeru's arms. "I was scared you'd all gotten hurt or lost!"

Takeru laughed, "We're fine Tsunomon! It's okay."

Tsunomon quickly looked around at all the faces and I could see the disappointment as he noticed that Yamato was one of five that were missing. He then turned to Takeru and smiled. "I'm glad!"

I noticed that Terriermon, Lopmon, Otamamon and Wormmon were all talking off by themselves and Ken and Miyako were nearby, hugging each other and whispering back and forth. Koushiro was sending Ken the deepest of glares which was cut short by Mimi elbowing him, her eyebrows raised.

Everything seemed to be back to normal now… except Yamato was gone and of course Gennai was kicking us out of the digital world… again…

"No…" I heard Takeru whisper, "Don't worry… she's fine. Can't you feel it?"

Hikari shook her head. "No… I think she's in danger—I think Ladydevimon was telling the truth…"

"Hikari…" I said, feeling awkward about butting into their conversation as both Takeru and Willis were comforting her on either side. "Even if she is in danger… we won't let her get hurt. We'll save her—no matter what Gennai says… we're a team and Gatomon is part of that team."

Hikari stared at me and slowly smiled, "Thanks…" She said, and then her eyes opened wider for a moment. "Yamato!" She called out.

I spun around instinctively and smiled brightly. There he was, standing in the doorway of the temple looking as confused as ever, Tokomon buried in his arms, and Demiveemon on his head. I ran toward him, smiling, jumping up to him, throwing my arms around him and hugging him excitedly.

"Sora!" He gasped, "You're okay!"

"Always the tone of surprise…" I laughed at him. "I thought you were hurt." He shook his head, smiling at me. I then pointed to the others and said one word, "Takeru…"

He looked over excitedly and ran quickly toward his brother, Demiveemon jumping off of his head and into my arms at the last moment. I watched as Yamato and Takeru ran toward each other smiling.

"I found Tsunomon!" Takeru said excitedly as he held up his brother's digimon. Tsunomon was smiling as Tokomon leapt out of Yamato's arms and landed on the ground next to Takeru. Tsunomon jumped into Yamato's arms with a smile on his face as he squeezed his way tighter into his partners arms. Tokomon looked upset that Takeru hadn't noticed him.

"Hey!" Tokomon called from the ground. "Takeru!"

Takeru looked down and instantly his face lit up as he fell to his knees. "Tokomon!" He cheered wrapping his arms around his digimon. I was happy for them both… really I was, but still the thought of Yokomon kept pushing its way back into my mind.

But that didn't matter right now… we had survived a war… for the most part we were all together and besides a few cuts and bruises we were all okay…

"Yamato," Tsunomon said quickly, "We need to get to the meeting!"

"What meeting?" Yamato asked.

"Just follow me." Tsunomon jumped out of Yamato's arms and jumped after Gennai and Taichi.

I looked up to the door where Tsunomon was leading Yamato… whatever they were talking about in there could decide the fate of both worlds, and even though Miyako wore the goggles… I would always think of Taichi as my leader… and I trusted him. Whatever he, Yamato and the others came up with… I would obey without a second thought… but with both Dragomon and the apparent Fanglongmon out there to bring an end to life as we know it… with Kurayami's mother hiding somewhere in the world, and with the Dark Ocean slowly taking over the Digital World, the fate of the worlds didn't look good…

_**Rei:**_

I was still holding the frying pan as the elevator opened on the ground floor. The woman that was getting her mail looked at me funny, as if I'd just escaped from the loony bin. And at the time, I wasn't quite sure I hadn't. I was replaying my last encounter as I pressed the automatic button to open the door for me. Mr Ishida and Mrs Takenouchi—who I'd finally placed as the mother of Yamato's girlfriend Sora—were carrying a small costumed child, acting like the world was in danger. And I'd believed them without even asking for proof! They just threw a frying pan my way and say "Stay safe".

I should have asked more questions. Maybe Neo was right about what Yamato and his two friends had been doing when they yelled at the sky. Perhaps it was hereditary.

But if that were true, Taichi would be crazy.

I'd spent three years with him so far, and I could safely say he wasn't. Eccentric maybe, but not crazy.

So maybe they were telling the truth…

My head was starting to hurt. As soon as the door was open however, the sounds of screaming filled my ears. I rolled my chair out the door quickly, to see what the commotion was about. There was a group of…things in the middle of the street, some chasing anyone who happened to walk down the side-walk, others ripping up the flower boxes that made this neighbourhood look so nice.

And then I rolled over a small twig, one that had fallen from my favourite shade tree.

That was it, just a teeny tiny snap, and suddenly—though I can't be sure how they heard it over the screaming—the _things'_ eyes all turned to me. They were covered in grey fur, and had ears that made me think of a dog, but they stood on their hind legs, just like humans did. They had long tails, and a strange belt wrapped around it. And worst of all, they were headed straight at me.

I slammed my right hand on the automatic door button, and stared at them in horror. The door opened just in time for me to spin my wheels backwards, sending me into the lobby again.

"Run!" I told the woman who'd thought I was crazy.

The door wasn't able to hold them out.

I hadn't expected it to really, it was mostly made of glass—and had a button that conveniently opened it—that was soon shattered. Their teeth, I noted, looked rather sharp, as they grinned maliciously at me.

The woman who's _still_ managed to think I was crazy let out a loud, piercing scream. One ran at her, and she tried to fight him off with her big, clunky purse. There must've been bricks in there though, as he recoiled quickly, enough for her to escape through the remains of the front door.

"No, wait!" I shouted after her. But she was already gone, headed into the streets where there were many more of these _things_ waiting to attack.

I shook the thought out of my head. I didn't have time for this. I could feel guilty _after_ I'd saved myself.

I had only one chance to get away too: the elevator.

I started cursing that stupid car accident as I pressed the up button and had to wait, as the things crept towards me, thinking they had me good and trapped.

And I had to agree with them, as the elevator just didn't seem to be coming.

"What are you?" I asked, trying to hold my voice steady—and doing remarkably well, I thought, considering the situation.

"We're Gazimon," the one closest to me said.

"And that means?" I asked hesitantly. So much for my bravado.

"Digimon," the one behind him said. "Digital monsters."

Oh, I thought. So pretty much my worst nightmare?

Monsters, really?

And then the most heavenly sound I'd ever heard chimed from behind me.

The elevator arrived.

I couldn't help the sigh of relief, as I rolled backwards into the elevator…only to get my wheels stuck.

"Oh no," I mumbled, struggling with the wheels. These _digimon_ seemed to think it was hilarious though, and started laughing among themselves. Their laughter sent chills down my spine, and I tried even harder.

The first one that spoke—their leader perhaps—took a few confident steps toward me.

"Stay back," I said, shifting my purse and cell phone to the side, giving me plenty of room for my frying pan. "I'm warning you."

The laughter got even louder, and he was only a foot away from me…

And I swung, fast and hard.

The laughter stopped when their leader fell to the ground, unconscious. They weren't in such a good mood anymore. They ran at me, two grabbing either side of my chair, holding me in place, the last three were going to attack me, I could just tell. So I swung the frying pan at my captors, they let go, causing my chair to roll backwards, directly into the elevator.

"Yes!" I shouted, adrenaline shooting through my veins.

The three who'd been about to attack me paused for just a second to look at their two new fallen companions. That second was all I needed. I shot forward and pressed the close button, followed quickly by my floor number. The door was closing, and I could feel the relief spreading through me, only to have it dashed, my heart almost stopping, when one grey, furry hand—complete with big, black claws—got in between the doors, causing them to open again.

"Not so fast," he said. He and his two friends slipped into the elevator, circling around me, so that one was behind me and on either side. I didn't want them to see how thankful I was of that positioning—nothing between me and the door—so I tried to keep my face calm.

"What do you want from me?" I asked, making my voice shaky, so he'd think I was terrified, with no escape. It occurred to me that they'd only seen me moving backwards, and probably thought that was the only direction my chair could move.

"Nothing in particular," his friend on my left said.

"We just enjoy instilling fear and desperation," the third said.

"And you humans make it _so_ easy," the first said, leaning down to whisper in my ear. I shivered, a jolt of fear finding me. I pushed it aside.

"Well," I said. "It's not going to work today!"

I swung the frying pan, first to the left, then the right. I swung my chair around, surprising the third digimon, before slamming the frying pan down on his head.

The door opened, and I pushed my wheels with all my might, flying out of the elevator, before any of them could recover, only one of the three having lost consciousness. I pushed myself directly to the Ishida's door.

"Mr Ishida!" I shouted. "Mrs Takenouchi!"

I started out with a polite knock, but the two digimon had recovered, and were walking towards me. They were holding their heads, and glaring at me. I'd angered them, and I didn't know what to do about that. I was running out of options. There were only so many places a wheelchair could go.

I started banging on the door louder, at a much more frantic pace.

"Hurry!" I yelled.

The door opened, and a frazzled Mrs Takenouchi looked down at me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Them," I said, pointing at the incoming digimon. Her eyes widened as she realized why I was freaking out.

"Get inside," she said, taking the frying pan out of my hands. I struggled, with shaking hands, but she pushed me the rest of the way, before turning, as if a warrior, wielding the frying pan. And then I couldn't see her anymore. Mr Ishida had come and closed the door.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"We're not entirely sure," he said, ushering me into a bedroom. I figured it was his, since there weren't any band posters or musical instruments around, but it didn't have the guest room feel to it. There were two more digimon waiting in there.

"Are Taichi and Yamato in trouble?" I asked hesitantly.

"At this point…we think yes," the digimon—that I was sure was more ghostly than the kid with the sheet…who I now knew wasn't a kid with a sheet—sitting on the bed said.

"I really hope they know what they're doing then," I said slumping back into my chair as Mrs Takenouchi came back in, tossing the frying pan only the dresser beside the door.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **We start Arc Three, with Michael narrating for us as we find out the results of Gennai`s mysterious meeting! :O I think my keyboard is in French ÉÉÉ Yup it is. Those are supposed to be question marks. Stupid Canadian French options! GO AWAY! ? AHA! I got my question marks back! I bet you're all really proud of me and all my accomplishments—right... Michael chapter... I AM GOING TO SLEEP


	22. Course of Action

**Y/N:** I found parts of this hilarious, and I'm so happy with what UrazamayKing wrote. It was lighter than the last chapter, while still having serious undertones. I was very pleased. And I got to try being an old man for the sub-plot of this one, when I wrote as Iori's grandfather. So let me know how I did!

**U/N: **this was... hard. So many characters to work with here, and giving everyone their own personality and time to shine was hard. So i think Meiyomon, Otamamon, Demiveemon and some of the digidestined themselves sort of faded into the background this time... there hasn't been a time with this many characters in a while... it was hard. Anyway... i hope you like it, it's a lot more calm than the last chapter, we get to know a bit more about MIchael... and i tried REALLY hard to make him likable while still being michael... he'll grow a little more in the future with trying to become everyoen's friends... i think that's what he wants... but he doesn't know he wants it... and by the end of this continuity i think he'll be in everyone's good book. anyway... please review! Also tell me if he's likable yet? i tried... really i did... i'm sorry aha :P

Apart from all of that, i just thought i'd talk about the arc's, it's true they aren't defined very well, but last time they were based on the enemies, the arcs this time are based around the digidestined themselves and what kinds of predicaments they find themselves in. Arc one: on earth, Arc two: on earth/digiworld, Arc three: together again, all in the digital world, and arc four: ? who knows... uhm... just thought i'd clear that up...

there was something else.. but i forget... so just enjoy this then...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 22: Course of Action**

_**Michael:**_

The moon was still high in the sky as it had been through the entire battle that had happened only half an hour prior to my sitting with Betamon on that roof. I was laying on my back, staring up at the stars and Betamon was laying next to me, keeping as close as he could. The only thing that could have made this any better was if Tatum was there next to me. Well... so long as she wasn't mad at me anymore... I wasn't really sure where I stood with that girl... always breaking up with me and then asking me to go to some fancy restaurant with her... She was a confusing girl... but I loved her anyway... and I wished she would just let me know how she felt as well...

I tried to keep Tatum from my mind as Betamon ranted to me about all that had happened to him over the course of the three years we had been out of the digital world. He wanted to make sure I was up to date on his life... "...and that was then I was hit—I don't know who had done it, or why they had, but I was reverted back to my rookie form. Gennai and the others debated on taking me from my post, a rookie wouldn't do much good... but I told them I could still survey the water—I could live down there if they wanted... I didn't want to be taken out of my job! I liked being helpful. So they agreed and I moved my little house down into the waters of the Dark Ocean."

"Are you sure it's safe to live there?" I asked him quickly, "It doesn't seem... I just want you to be safe."

"I've been living there for a year and a half..." Betamon said with a shrug, "I seem fine, don't I?"

He did seem fine... but he also seemed different... he was much bolder, braver... quick witted... talkative... he was a different digimon all together, but he _did_ seem fine. And I didn't care what he wanted to act like, so long as he was next to me while doing it. He was my best friend and being apart from him for three years was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do...

I mean... sure Mimi, Willis and Tatum were great people—in fact they were amazing company... but nothing could beat Betamon... okay, well, Tatum came pretty close...

I found myself wishing for Tatum again, but was cut short when Betamon glared at me.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked me.

"Nothing!" I said too quickly and too loudly—for being an actor I was a terrible liar. Betamon shook his head, seeing right through the lie as I knew he would.

"Michael... you can tell me." He insisted.

"I'm just thinking about Tatum..." I sighed, giving in easily. "I just don't understand her! She keeps breaking up with me but saying that she can't live without me!"

"That means she loves you." Betamon explained simply. Even though she didn't say it, my heart still skipped a beat at the sound of it. "You just have to give her the opportunity to tell you that herself. I think she's just confused a little. Just help her out." Betamon was smiling to himself as he spoke... who was he to be giving me advice on my girlfriend? Had he even met her? But I figured I'd just trust him anyway... he seemed to be confident in any case.

After that there was a long moment of silence in which I looked around at the rest of the group which were scattered about the temple. I couldn't see Taichi, Yamato, _or_ their digimon, but I knew they were in the meeting room just across from the roof I was on. Mimi was talking excitedly to Sora and Miyako who were all being about as girly as they could be. Takeru, Willis, and Hikari were all sitting by the far wall, near the entrance to the temple with Patamon, Terriermon and Lopmon on each of their laps. I was just as confused about where Takeru and Willis stood with Hikari as I was with Tatum and myself. Jou and Iori were pacing back and forth not far from where Takeru and the others were, they were impatient... I wasn't sure why... the other group hadn't said much about their time apart from us, and if they had I had missed it, trying to spend time with Betamon...but they looked upset in any case. Ken and Wormmon were playing with Otamamon and Demiveemon in a cryptic, stone park not far away. Otamamon had mentioned a few times that he missed Daisuke and his sister—I knew this and I wasn't even on the ground... that digimon was _loud_. And then of course Demiveemon—he had been hoping to find Daisuke I'm sure, and as he finally came to our group of digidestined he found that of the two that were missing, one was his partner... I felt bad for him. And lastly there was Koushiro... the seeming winner of our past competition for Mimi's heart... After I had met Tatum I had been secretly routing for Jou... Koushiro was not only a bossy know-it-all, but he was kind of just a jerk too... and I wasn't seeing the chemistry—Mimi had told me story upon story about her time in the digital world, and she was always with Jou! It just... it didn't fit properly for me. Well anyway, Koushiro was sitting by himself, typing away on his computer as if nothing had happened, and as if nothing mattered.

Other than my friends here, there were still loads of digimon and Gennai look-a-likes roaming around trying to rebuild the parts of the temple that had been broken... None of them were severely hurt, I know this because Jou had set up a place where he could look at them all to be sure they weren't in too much pain right below me. He was a good doctor... I admired that about him...

I turned back to the meeting room door, hoping that the door would just open and Gennai would walk out... but I knew it was too much to hope for. They had a lot to talk about in there. I seriously considered having a nap when, against everything I had thought, the door popped open. The first out the door was a line of random digimon I barely recognized, and then finally Agumon rushed out, followed by Gabumon who had apparently digivolved. And lastly, Taichi, Yamato and Gennai came out of the meeting room, each looking solemn faced. Gennai made eye contact with me and motioned for me to come down.

"Oooh!" Betamon joked, "You're in trouble!"

"Shut up!" I laughed, elbowing him playfully as I slid over to the edge I used to get up in the first place. I jumped down and turned around to catch Betamon as he jumped down after me. "You're lighter than I remember." I told him with a smile, setting him on the ground and leading him toward Gennai who had given each of the others the same look as he had given me.

The last to crowd around him was Koushiro who was set on finishing whatever it was that he was typing, but he eventually obeyed and hurried over, slinging his laptop over his shoulder.

"Alright," Gennai announced, stepping back onto an overturned crate so he could be seen above the rest of us. "I was just—" Gennai was cut off by Agumon and Gabumon hurrying to find similar crates. They set them down and hopped on top of them, trying to be important as well... only they were still shorter than most of us. "As I was saying..." Gennai continued, "In the meeting we discussed a number of things. I'll try to push through them quickly." No one objected, not even Mimi which I was surprised about, "Firstly we spoke of Dragomon, and how and why he was here. The only conclusion we could logically come up with was that he wanted someone or something. Now I was informed by Taichi that some of you have strange keys? Perhaps that is what he wanted. May I see one?" He asked. Koushiro was the first to step forward handing his key to Gennai.

"This key is complied of digital matter." Koushiro explained, "It's what aided us in our attempts to return to the digital world."

"Where did you get this?" He asked slowly.

"It was projected out of a rip between the two worlds." Koushiro explained. "it came to me, and the other four came out as well."

"I see..." Gennai said, handing Koushiro his key back. "I think it's very possible that these keys would be something Dragomon would like to have in his hold. But there is also one other thing here that Dragomon would want beyond anything else." He paused for a moment and then pointed directly to Hikari who was still holding Lopmon in her arms. "Hikari. Dragomon has been hunting Hikari for more than seven years now... and I feel that keeping her as far away from him as possible is the key to destroying him." We all nodded, feeling that Gennai seemed to know what he was talking about right now, and he was even doing it almost unbiased... which seemed totally different from the Gennai we had gotten to know over the past twenty three and a half hours. I only then realized how seriously exhausted I was. I never went a night without sleeping—it was part of being gorgeous. "And second, Yamato brought up the topic of Fanglongmon. He wasn't here tonight, but he told me that Koushiro was worried about the specific digimon." Koushiro gave Yamato a 'I can't believe it! You actually listen when I speak?' look. "Fanglongmon is likely the strongest foe we've ever had to deal with, he... he's like God from your world."

"Only he's evil!" Agumon added.

"And _mean!_" Gabumon joined in.

"Yes... yes that." Gennai said with a nod. "He created the Sovereign themselves... and has a strange connection to each of you digidestined. He can break his way into your mind and change your thoughts—change your goals... he can change your entire self. He isn't safe for you all to be around at all. But he does need to be taken down." We all nodded, it seemed logical to me... "And I know my previous statement requires you all to leave this world in roughly twenty one and half minutes... but after speaking with the council." He motioned to the digimon around him, "We have agreed to allow you all to stay here until mid-afternoon tomorrow. You must all leave before sundown or, like I said, the worlds will forever be one." If there was any light on the scene it wouldn't have been scary, but the way he said it mixed with the dark shadows cast across his face and around us all... it gave me the chills. It gave me inspiration for a character... I would have to remember this next time I went in for an audition. "I know you, Mimi, will surely appreciate the extension."

"I do." She said smiling, "Thank you Gennai."

"I figured you would have something snarky or rude to say to me." Gennai said slowly.

"Nope." Mimi said. "I'm good. That was all very mature of you Gennai." She smiled, Gennai practically sighed with relief as Mimi flipped her hair. "That... and the fact that you're giving us a whole other day to fix everything. I'm sure Koushiro can find a way for us to keep the worlds separate while still being allowed here. You gave him a whole day. I'm pretty sure he could become _God_ in a day if he wanted to. He's a smart one." Koushiro blushed and looked away.

"I... I'll see what I can do." He said.

"I wish you the best of luck then." Gennai said to Koushiro. "Now if there is anything else—"

"Uh—yes there is." Yamato said loudly. "You're forgetting the major problem in your plan..."

"What's that?" Gennai asked, truly confused.

"The fact that Momoe, Natsuki and the others are still here. Even if we leave the balance will still be off." Yamato explained. "We have to save them. That's the next part of the plan." Jou and Iori both smiled at Yamato who seemed to have become somewhat of a third stooge for them. Momoe... who was that? Oh! That was right! Momoe was one of Miyako's siblings...

"Momoe..." Gennai said slowly. "Yes we should save her... it's not safe for a human to be here without a digimon let alone a pregnant woman."

"Wait what?" Takeru asked at the same time as Willis. Momoe was pregnant? Jou's baby? I looked toward him and Mimi was comforting him by squeezing his hand... I suppose the Joumi ship was sinking... I needed to jump onto the... whatever couple name Koushiro and Mimi would have—Koumi... yeah. The Koumi ship.

"I LOVE BABIES!" Hikari suddenly shouted out excitedly, dropping Lopmon. "Momoe is pregnant? Oh my goodness!" She was now jumping up and down, literally bouncing with excitement. "Can I babysit? _Please_?"

Jou looked shocked but eventually smiled and nodded, "Yeah... sure thing. Just as soon as... you know... we save her from the forces of evil."

"Also you'll have to wait until she actually _has_ her baby." I added. "Unless you want to literally sit on Momoe's stomach." The others all looked toward me and I instantly knew what it felt like to be Daisuke. "Sorry... that was dumb..."

"You think?" Koushiro asked, rolling his eyes at me.

"What are we waiting around here for?" Iori asked sharply. "If we're going to go save them... let's do that. I don't think Natsuni is going to be overly pleased that I've been pacing back and forth instead of saving her."

"What about Daisuke?" Hikari asked suddenly, "And Kurayami? We can't just leave them!"

"Looking for them isn't an option." Gennai put in quickly, "I've tried already, they are nowhere to be found. We will just have to wait for them to come to us which I'm sure they eventually will... I only hope they do it fast enough."

"So what's the plan then?" Willis asked. "Do you know where to go?"

"I think I do." Gennai said.

"Where?" Jou and Iori asked quickly.

"There is one of two places where they could be." Gennai explained, "They could be in the Dark Ocean itself which is to the West, or in the home of Fanglongmon... which is to the East."

"Of course..." Betamon sighed, "They would be in complete opposite directions." Gennai nodded slowly.

"So which one is it?" Iori asked.

"I don't know." Gennai admitted. "The information I have suggests that they would have been taken to the Dark Ocean—but I still feel as though they would have more use in the home of Fanglongmon.

"Let's just make a quick vote then." Sora suggested, it was clear that Iori wanted to stop her instantly, but Sora continued, "We won't split up or anything! It'll just be a good idea to see what everyone wants. I'm not trying to take charge or anything... but..."

"I agree with Sora." Yamato chimed in.

"Me too." Gabumon and Takeru said together.

"I vote that we go to Fanglongmon." Hikari said quickly. "I don't want to go to the Dark Ocean. It isn't a fun place for those of you who've yet to see it..."

"I agree with Hikari one hundred percent." Ken added, "And besides why would they want us at the Dark Ocean? It seems to me that if Fanglongmon can break into our minds and control us, then they would lure us toward him would they not?"

"That seems logical..." Koushiro said, "But I vote that we go to the Dark Ocean."

"Why?" Mimi asked, curious as to why he would have chosen the illogical path.

"Just because." He said.

"Okay... I'll trust it." She said smiling. "I'm for the Dark Ocean."

Iori and Jou looked to each other and slowly nodded, "Fanglongmon." They said together.

"I'm voting for the Dark Ocean..." Sora said nodding.

"Me too." Yamato agreed.

"That's dumb..." Takeru said, "There is no points leading to that... I'm for Fanglongmon."

"Me too." Willis said.

"Well Daemon's home is now the Dark Ocean." Gennai said. "And it was Daemon's minions that did the kidnapping. So it makes sense that they would be there."

"That makes sense..." Taichi said looking to Hikari, "Sorry... but I'm voting for the Dark Ocean. Besides, Kurayami might be there anyway."

"I agree with Taichi!" I put in quickly.

"So what's that now?" Agumon asked.

"Six for the Dark Ocean and six for following Fanglongmon." Gabumon filled in.

"It's a tie!" Patamon said shocked. "But there are thirteen of you. Who didn't vote?"

"It was Miyako!" Otamamon said brightly. "Miyako didn't vote!" Everyone turned to Miyako who looked very nervous as she fiddled with the goggles on her head, her face flushed and she looked back and forth between us all.

"Do I get a vote?" Meiyomon asked, "I like voting."

"No, just the digidestined." Gennai said, "This is their last day in this world and they get to choose what they do then."

"So what's it gonna be?" Betamon asked. "Miyako... what's your vote?"

"She's gonna choose the Dark Ocean." Lopmon said from the ground where she was still sitting after Hikari had dropped her.

"No she's not!" Terriermon jumped from Willis's arms. "She's obviously going to pick the other one! It makes more sense."

"Hey now!" Wormmon tried, "Stop arguing!" He and Demiveemon hurried toward the two of them and tried to pry them apart.

"I don't know!" Miyako yelled out suddenly. "I need some time to think!" She turned and was gone, storming away from us all.

"Miyako wait!" Ken called out, rushing after her. Mimi was soon to follow, but the rest of us stood still, watching her storm off.

"So what now?" Taichi asked, "We don't have time to wait..."

"We can wait a couple more minutes." Jou, of all people, said. "Momoe is her sister, she's under a lot of pressure Taichi... she wants to pick the right way."

"Not to mention the goggles." Sora added. "Those goggles... being a leader... it's a lot of pressure."

Everyone was silent for a moment... no one, well at least_ I_ hadn't thought about it that way... Miyako was under more pressure than anyone in this situation, and even though Jou was looking for his girlfriend and unborn child, this was Miyako's family too...

"While we wait..." Koushiro said, pulling out his laptop after first being sure that Mimi was still following Miyako. "Gennai, I have a few questions." He stepped toward Gennai who hopped off of the crate he had been standing on. "While you were in that meeting I was spending some time looking around... and Takeru suggested I investigate the place where the digivices were being held captive."

Gennai shot Takeru a look of warning, which made both Hikari and Takeru start laughing.

"What's so funny?" Patamon asked, floating down into Takeru's arms.

"Anyway," Koushiro said, "There was a strange symbol... what does it mean?" He showed Gennai his laptop. Gennai shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know." He admitted. "Most of this Temple was created before digimon even existed—before _I_ existed. It could mean anything."

Koushiro turned to Gennai allowing me to see his laptop. I saw a strange formation of triangles..."Who built this temple then if not you and your people?"

Gennai shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Koushiro!" I said suddenly. "I know what that symbol means."

Koushiro turned to me, his eyebrows raised, "I highly doubt—"

"It's the symbol for evolution." I told him, "It's an ancient rune or whatever."

"I can't see how you could possibly be sure of—" Koushiro tried again.

"I studied runes and all sorts of History junk for my last movie." I told him. "That means evolution. Trust me... well it does on Earth anyway."

Koushiro looked to me in disbelief still but finally looked away and hurried back to his place by the wall and began typing again.

"So… Ladydevimon is working with Daemon?" Sora asked.

Gennai nodded.

"So Skullsatamon and Marinedevimon were as well?" Sora asked, again, Gennai nodded. "So he's down to just one minion"

"Oh!" Iori said suddenly, grabbing Meyiomon's arm and running off.

"I don't know." Gennai answered Sora while watching Iori run with his brother, confused. "What is he—"

"I don't know." Jou said, speaking up and watching his friend leave. "He'll be back in a couple minutes I'm sure… I think."

I looked to Miyako and the others and saw that they were coming back now.

Everyone was silent as she came up to us with Ken on one side and Mimi on the other.

"I've decided... that..." She was still unsure of her decision, "I've decided that we need to go to Fanglongmon's residence."

"Yes!" Jou and Iori cried out.

"Alright," Gennai said, "Shall we be off then?"

_**Chikara:**_

"Why is it always Iori?"

Fumiko had been crying ever since she read that damned note. Iori was holding the fate of the world—this time maybe two—in his hands. Him and his friends. The only time she'd stopped crying, was when those other parents came over. I'd distracted them while she dried her tears, cleaned herself up, but I think it depressed her more to find that there were parents that didn't even know their children were in danger.

If she had to choose between worry and fear, or blissful ignorance, she would always choose worry and fear.

"It isn't just Iori," I reminded her gently, taking a sip of my prune juice. She'd been providing me prune juice as often as she cried. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't want it… too much of a good thing and all…

"I know," she lamented. "It's Meiyo too!"

"Now, now," I said, patting her shoulder. "Young Meiyo can take care of himself, and keep Iori safe for you. He is more dependable than TNT."

"You're right," she said, taking in a shaky breath and trying to calm her nerves. "Of course you're right. It just…they're my children. I'm supposed to be able to protect them, you know?"

"I know," I said solemnly. Hiroki, my son, had always made me feel the same way, whenever he went away of a 'mission'. He was guarding a foreign missionary when he was shot down. I couldn't do anything to protect him.

No. I understood what she was feeling quite well.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I should've been more careful with words. I know better than to bring it up."

"It's alright. It has been a long time now, I am able to speak of it," I told her. She was always walking on glass when she spoke with me. Iori never had that problem. If he wanted to hear about his father, he would come to me, as she was too afraid to speak of him around me. She didn't realize that I liked to remember the good times we shared.

"And now with _Iori_," she cried. "I am so insensitive."

My son and my grandson. And Meiyo, my adopted grandson. I had only known him for three years, but he was a vital part of this family now.

"I think I shall practice my Kendo," I told her, slowly standing up. My joints weren't what they used to be.

"Oh, I've heard news reports that say the streets aren't safe," she said quickly.

"Then I shall use our balcony," I told her with a squinty-eyed smile. The happier and worry-free I pretended to be, the easier it was for Fumiko to calm herself. With Kendo, I would be able to vent my frustrations without her knowing.

I gathered my equipment from my room, and put on the uniform. Clutching the Kendo stick in my hand, I made my way towards the balcony, pausing only to send Fumiko another smile. She'd been through a lot in life already; I didn't want her worrying to cause her health issues. She worried far too much to be healthy. She needed to be here when Iori and Meiyo got back.

Once I was on the balcony, I let the soothing movements and rigorous exercise take my mind away from our problems. It was a type of meditation for me. I was so glad when Iori showed interest in learning with me. I hoped his training helped him wherever he was now.

"Huck-yuck, let's go up further, huh?"

"Oh yes, yes, let's do that, yuck!"

"Look, look, there's a light here huh…maybe it is Queen Hikari?"

"No, no, no, yuck, it's not bright enough."

These irritating voices broke my concentration. I looked around me, but saw nothing but the darkness of night that had fallen. The voices, however, seemed to be getting louder.

"Up up, yuck, let's go higher!"

"This is fun, huh. Super duper fun."

That's when I saw them. Two slimy green things with purple polka dots were inching their way up the wall of our apartment building. They had two eyes, each reaching above the rest of their body's…sort of reminiscent of a snail or slug.

"Nope nope," the one on the right said. "Not Queen Hikari, yuck, not her at all."

"Hikari," I murmured. That's right, she was one of Iori's friends. Hikari Yagami, the sickly one.

"Yes, yes, yes, huh! Do you know where we can find her?" the second asked me. They jumped onto the balcony with me. "We can't find her anywhere."

"She's in the Digital World," I said my mind taking a vacation at their very presence.

"Oh, yuck. That's where we came from. We are Numemon sir, yuck. And Hikari is our Queen. We are looking for her, for we are very lost," Yuck—as I'd decided to call him—said.

"We were just wandering our sewers, huh, when we suddenly were in a different sewer, without our family and friends," Huh said.

"You didn't mean to come to Earth?" I asked surprised.

"Is that where we are?" Huh asked.

"Yes," I said.

"It is where Queen Hikari is from too, yuck!" Yuck shouted happily.

"But she is in our home now, huh?" Huh asked sadly.

"She is trying to save it, according to Meiyo."

"Meiyomon? Oh, he was very scary, yuck. Us Numemon are very scared of him," Yuck told me.

"Iori said something about how he was the enemy once upon a time," I mused. "He's good now, he's my grandson. A friend of Hikari."

"Oh, huh. He's good then," Huh said.

"How can I get you back home?" I asked.

"We don't know, yuck," Yuck said. "We need help."

"I'll help you," I said patiently.

"We do not know how, huh, to get back to the Digital World," Huh said. "We was thinking that Hikari could help us, huh, 'cause she's been there before."

"Yes, well, we'll have to make do with me for now," I said. And by the look on their…er…_faces_...I was in for a long night.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Koushiro is up next…what's he working on? What will they find on their quest to Fanglongmon's home? Find out next time!


	23. Digital Evolution

**Y/N:** Um…I _don't_ hate Izzy. He's my favourite. So yeah. I love being him, and I loved writing this chapter…It doesn't seem like it, since it's late, but it's true! I was cleaning my room, and it's now day five on that project. I'm also exchanging furniture and whatnot. It's kind of a big project. I'd planned on having this done on Wednesday, so we'd be ahead, and wouldn't have anymore late updates…that didn't work this time, but maybe next time? I don't know. I hope so. :)

**U/N: **Uhm... I hate Izzy? haha... I guess you probably gathered that by now. i just DO NOT LIKE THIS CHARACTER. At all. -_- but Shuu! i like Shuu!

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 23: Digital Evolution**

_**Koushiro:**_

I had to admit, with all the walking we were doing, I was getting pretty exhausted. I'd gone nights without sleep before, but usually I was working on my latest bit of programming, not running for my life during a battle that would result in a turning point in the war we literally threw ourselves into.

And my shoulder was killing me.

What few action movies I'd actually seen did _not_ prepare me for this. The characters can be cut up all over and still finish the movie with little complaints. I suppose I was not cut out to be the hero. I'm the brains behind the outfit. I don't belong on the field. Of course I was trying to downplay my injury, because we, simply put, didn't have time to worry about it. We were walking towards what would be the biggest battle of our lives—topping the one we just got out of. Why was the Digital World adamant about sending us challenges, each much more difficult than the last? Just once I'd like to have to fight against a herd of Numemon—for example anyway. I was well aware that they are on our side.

In any case, I was glad for our short break. It was…_informative_. We'd decided to head due east, to the home of the digimon Gennai told me they'd take care of as we were leaving the Digital World last time. I snorted. They did _such_ a great job at it too. One look around the Digital World, and I was longing for Earth again. That had never happened to me before, wanting to be in Earth when I have the entirety of the Digital World at my disposal. I didn't feel much like being here though. It was as if the Dark Ocean's powers were embedded into the very fabric of the Digital World, and it was sucking the life and happiness from me. There weren't many ways to shake the strange, depressing edge the world had taken on.

One of such ways was social interaction.

I was dismal at social interaction. Sora had taken to talking to me though, and for that I was eternally grateful. And Mimi seemed to not want to leave my side very often—which was actually rather exciting. Rather than inducing gratitude, it spurred along something Sora told me to do…

Sora was sitting with Yamato a ways away. When Mimi and Miyako had come back, I had to relocate to the edge of the group, on the peripheral, so Mimi wouldn't get angry that I was using my laptop. Sora was talking rather animatedly with Yamato, but when Takeru came over, she stood up, giving the two of them some space to have their little brotherly chat. She looked around, and spotted me off to the side. She grinned and came over to take a seat by my side.

She elbowed me in the side. "So…?"

"So…what?" I asked, though I was fairly sure I knew to which she was referring.

"So, you and Mimi. What's going on there?" she asked with too much enthusiasm for an outside party. She was grinning like a sly cat. I _knew_ I shouldn't have told her all of this.

"Nothing," I admitted. "I almost kissed her…but the timing was wrong, and she didn't seem to want to kiss me either. So it's probably best that we were interrupted."

"By what?"

"Certain death," I said giving her a look.

"Right, right," she said holding her hands up in surrender. "I just thought, since you asked for my advice…"

"You forced it on me by prying into my social life," I informed her.

"Inquiring if you have one is not prying," she said with a half-hearted glare. "And as I was saying, you asked for advice, I don't think it's asking too much wanting to know how things are going."

"I'm going to kiss her when we get out of here," I told her, surprising myself with the conviction. It had just been an idea I'd flitted over a couple of times since we'd gotten here. "If we get out of here."

"No hesitation?" Sora asked looking rather impressed.

"Sora," I said dryly. "There won't be time for hesitation. I'll be in such a state of euphoria after making it out alive, that I won't remember to hesitate until it's over."

She laughed. "Good luck with that, then. I hope it works well for you."

"Me too," I muttered, causing her to laugh again.

"What are you working on?" she asked changing the subject as I so desperately wanted her to.

"I'm still trying to decode the message from the room with the digivices," I admitted. There was just no way that _Michael_ of all people could've been right about that symbol.

"Michael's suggestion of evolution makes sense to me, in a roundabout way," Sora said. "Think about it. The digivices are just _digital devices_ that spur digivolution. _Digital evolution. _It's right there, if you think about it."

I opened my mouth to tell her that she had to be wrong, but closed it again, deciding to think this through.

Digital evolution.

Could it really have been that simple all along?

"You could be on to something," I muttered. "The digivice is the tool that urges and controls the digivolutions, but it _can_ be done a different way. I did it first with Tentomon, trying to get him to digivolve into Kabuterrimon for the first time. I _programmed_ him to digivolve. And then I did it again with HerculesKabuterrimon, I programmed MegaKabuterrimon into digivolving."

"And…?" she asked hesitantly, unsure of where I was heading.

"If it's possible to program a digimon into becoming more powerful, or digivolving…" I said leaving it open for her to come up with my conclusion.

"We can make them revert into a smaller digimon as well!" she exclaimed.

"Exactly," I said with a huge smile. "And it shouldn't be too hard to reconfigure the sequences that I utilized while—"

"You're losing me," Sora said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry," I said. "I should be able to reverse the sequence I used to digivolve Tentomon into being a formula to revert a digimon instead."

"How long do you suppose it will take?" Sora asked.

"Give me five minutes and I'll see what I can do," I said with a sly smile. She rolled her eyes, but gave me the allotted five minutes to see what I could do to rework my perfected formula. Just as I was adding the finishing touches, a pink pillar signified Iori and Meiyomon's return.

"We just saw some pretty intense digimon," Iori informed us right away. He still hadn't explained his sudden departure.

"Oh?" Hikari asked politely.

"Yeah, one was wooden and the other was like a giant machine," Iori continued.

"They looked powerful," Meiyomon added.

"And they were searching for something," Iori finished.

"Oh no," DemiVeemon said. "It's them."

"Who?" I asked.

"Fanglongmon's minions," he said. "They're some of the strongest he's got. Megas. Stronger than megas."

"Mega is the highest level though, isn't it?" Taichi asked.

"No," Yamato said. "Omnimon, remember? He's stronger, because he's two digimon combined into one."

"They're that strong too," DemiVeemon said. "But they're just one digimon each."

"That's impossible," Mimi said shakily.

"Not with Fanglongmon's abilities I'm afraid," Gennai said.

"He grants evil digmon more power?" Takeru asked.

"Just these ones," DemiVeemon said.

"I've heard of them!" Patamon exclaimed. "He gave them more power because they were such powerful digimon already, but they'd been taken down by two megas."

"Oh, are we talking about the…what did they call themselves?" Terriermon said.

"Um…the Darkest Powers?" Lopmon suggested.

"No, that's not it. Was it Darkness Rising?" Terriermon said shaking his head.

"Nope, it was more like the Masters of Darkness," Lopmon corrected.

"That's it!" Terriermon shouted.

"It is?" Lopmon said pleased with herself.

"Not what you said," Terriermon said. "They're the Dark Masters."

"The Dark Masters?" Jou shouted. The rest of us were equally shocked.

"We barely beat them the last time," Sora complained.

"We're stronger than last time," Mimi reminded us.

"Apparently they are too," Hikari said sadly.

"Who are you talking about?" Willis asked.

"The Dark Masters," I said, pulling up their files on my computer. "A group of four mega level digimon. MetalSeadramon, Machindramon, Puppetmon, and their leader, Piedmon. They were the toughest battles we had to face when we were children. We almost didn't even beat Piedmon."

"If it wasn't for Patamon we wouldn't have stood a chance," Gabumon said.

"It was just lucky that that ability was within his arsenal," Yamato agreed.

"I don't know how we'll beat them again," Agumon said.

"We don't only have two megas this time," Michael pointed out.

"We have _ten_," Ken said. "And there's a chance we could have even more than that, if we work on portraying our crests…"

"It shouldn't be too difficult," Betamon said. "Michael's one of the strongest people I know."

"And Ken is super kind," Wormmon added.

"Yeah, and you guys can do anything," Otamamon said happily from his resting point in Ken's lap beside Wormmon.

"No we can't," I said immediately. "That is entirely unrealistic and absolutely—"

Sora elbowed me rather hard in the side again.

"Kind of you to say though," I finished lamely, glaring at Sora. She smiled innocently at me.

"We don't have time for this speculation," Miyako interjected. "We're on a bit of a tight schedule."

"A very good point," Gennai agreed. "We must start moving posthaste."

"Right."

It was a collective response, and I sighed, packing away my laptop. It was difficult when I was fully aware and uninjured to walk and use my laptop at the same time. I was not going to risk my most precious belonging falling to the ground by trying to do so while I was exhausted.

Sora and I walked together, near the end of the group. Only Mimi, Gennai, Meiyomon and Iori were trailing behind us. I was almost positive that Gennai was only at the back to be sure no more of us disappeared like Daisuke and Kurayami did. Mimi and Meiyomon were discussing his new form rather loudly. Taichi led the group, talking with Yamato, Takeru and Hikari about something that must have been quite humorous, since they started laughing happily. Their digimon partners were with them as well. Ken and Miyako were walking hand in hand, each using their other hand to carry a digimon, Otamamon and Wormmon. Jou, Michael, Willis and their digimon were next, both Michael and Willis were trying to keep Jou distracted, so he wouldn't try and speed up the pace in his hurry to get to Momoe.

"So, what were you looking for?" Sora asked Iori, as he fell in step with us.

"The key," he said. "The one SkullSatamon had. When he was destroyed, you guys just left it there. It can't fall into the hands of Fanglongmon or Dragomon, can it?"

"Good thinking," Mimi said coming up from behind us. "I wouldn't have ever thought of that."

"Thanks," he said awkwardly. "You ought to scan it."

"When we make our next stop," I promised him. "I can't now, but we need to know just what those keys are."

"I agree. I find them most intriguing." Gennai too, decided to join in the conversation.

"You said mine was just made of an Earth material, but yours is digital, but you're not sure what Hikari's is, and we can't scan Kurayami's, since she's not here. I'm a little curious as to what Iori's will be," Sora said.

"Me too," I told her. "If I could connect the dots, it wouldn't be nearly so confusing."

"That's what makes it such a good mystery," Mimi said, bumping my shoulder gently with her own, before she slipped her left hand into my right. Immediately, while trying not to look at her to make it too obvious—Sora said to "Play it cool" after all—I intertwined our fingers. I peeked over at her. She gave my hand a squeeze, and smiled up at me. I gave her what I'm sure was an embarrassed sort of smile before quickly looking away.

Sora was grinning like a Cheshire cat and actually gave me two thumbs up.

Gennai however looked upset.

"I've said it before," he said. "Relationships between digi-destined are not advised."

I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. He refused to elaborate however, thanks to the terrifying glare Mimi was sending his way. I pondered, just for a second, what he meant, before passing it off as another of his rash decisions. He didn't cite any proof to support the hypothesis; therefore I determined he didn't really know what he was talking about. He'd said many things in the past that turned out to be wrong. It wasn't unlikely that he was wrong now.

He had to be, because holding her hand—_just_ holding her hand—felt pretty right to me.

"So, the Dark Masters are back?" I asked.

"Yes, we've just covered that," Gennai said. He knew I was changing the subject.

"But you said they're a level above mega now?" I said.

"No, they've been awarded by Fanglongmon with the "X Virus", it enhances a digimon's power and ability," Gennai said.

"So it's not a digivolution?" I asked trying to get the answer I was after.

"No," he said. "Though they _are_ still Mega level digimon."

"Oh!" Sora said happily. "So Koushiro could use his new formula to revert them to ultimate level instead?"

"If such a formula existed," Gennai agreed.

"Great, 'cause he just finished it," she said. "This'll be easier than we thought."

"No," I said quickly. "I'm not testing the formula on a Dark Master. If a single number is wrong, I could double the power they currently possess, and we'll have even less of a chance at beating them."

"Drat," she muttered.

"What about an ultimate, or champion level digimon?" Iori asked me.

"Perhaps," I allowed. "We'd be able to handle them if I gave them more power. I need to be sure it works if I'm going to try it on such powerful digimon."

Michael and Willis started laughing. I looked over at them and caught Michael's eye.

Damn.

I had something I had to do.

I squeezed Mimi's hand, and said, "There's something I've got to do."

"Oh?" she said.

"I'll be back," I said, thinking about the painful conversation I was about to have. "And we'll continue this."

"Alright," Sora and Iori said together.

"Hey, Michael," I said quickening my pace to catch up with him. "Can I have a word?"

He looked to Jou and Willis who shrugged.

"Yeah, sure, no problem," he said. We let the other two pass us.

"You were right," I told him, forcing the words out of my mouth.

"Really?" he asked. I had a feeling he _knew_ he was, and was only employing his surprisingly decent acting abilities to make me feel better about it.

"Yes," I said with a sigh. "And I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss your theory."

"It's alright," he said. "No problem."

"It's not alright. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I always follow through even the inane possibilities. And I don't _know_ anything about you. I should not have been so quick to dismiss your intelligence," I said.

"I'm not that smart," he said with a laugh. "It's like I said. I researched it for a potential part."

"Right, well," I said awkwardly. "I still know practically nothing about you. I only have the slightly harsh judgments I cast on you when you first came around. I really ought to test those judgments, and see who you really are in comparison."

"Are you saying you'd like to actually be friends?" Michael asked incredulously. It was too well executed to be acting—he was good, but not that good.

"Yeah," I said shrugging my shoulders. "I guess I am."

_**Shuu:**_

So we'd seen a digimon. It wasn't the first time that had happened... but it was certainly the most random of all the times I'd seen one. Jun couldn't get a hold of her brother, so I had tried calling Jou immediately, but after I got his answering machine I was quickly dragging Jun toward my car where I had told her to get in, and started driving.

She was firing questions like she was some kind of game show host, but I didn't have time to answer them. My mind was buzzing... why had there been a digimon? Haruhiko Takenouchi and I had done extensive research on the creatures, and it had stopped being a hobby of ours for three years after Jou and the others informed us that the digital world had been closed off indefinitely... but there was no denying that the thing I had seen was a Meramon... well I supposed it could have been a half visible man on fire with his mouth sewn shut—but the likely hood of that being the case... it was a digimon!

"Shuu!" Jun growled, "I just need to know what's going on! Where are we going?"

"I don't _know_ what's going on." I told her finally, "I'm just as confused as you are... Digimon aren't... able to be here. I'm confused."

"So where are we going?" She asked as I drove right through an intersection, causing the cars behind me and driving toward me swerve in confusion. All I could think of was that I was glad Jou wasn't in the car with me—he'd probably have wet his pants by now.

"I hope you realize that was illegal..." Jun pointed out.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know how urgent this is Jun..." I told her sharply as I drove. "The fate of the world could be in question."

"Because we saw a digimon?" She asked sharply as I sped up my driving. She grabbed the edges of her seat nervously as she rounded on me. "I see Otamamon every single day! Does that mean we're all going to die?"

"No—" I tried.

"Exactly!" She cried out, "If anyone was going to die it would be because of your driving!" As if on cue, a siren began blaring as Jun argued with me. I cursed under my breath as I looked into the rear view mirror at the Police who was stalking us. "Pull over." She shot to me, scared.

I shook my head and continued driving, knowing full well that I would regret it later.

"He's gone." Jun said suddenly. I checked the mirror quickly and found that she was right, he had fallen into the ditch. I smiled in relief and continued driving.

A flash shone in my eyes from the mirror so I looked once more, slowing my driving enough to not follow the Police Officer's lead into the ditch.

"Damn..." I said louder than I had meant to. The flash had come from the thing that was now following me in place of the Police, and what had, clearly driven him into the ditch. It was Meramon... he was following us, running quickly toward us, a cloud of smoke behind him, his expression was very angry.

Jun looked over her shoulder and let out a mangled attempt at a scream. "It's coming after us!" She yelled.

"I realize that!" I told her quickly, "Just stay calm... I think I know what to do."

"I'm totally calm... calm... I am calm." Jun continued to repeat herself over and over, trying to convince herself that she truly was calm.

Meramon was gaining on us so I sped up once more, rounding a corner comically quickly and was soon coming into a large parking lot of an even larger building.

"University?" Jun gasped, "This isn't the time to be studying Shuu! Besides! You graduated!"

"Jun," I told her as I hit the brakes and the car skidded to a stop. After she screamed she looked to me. "Get into that school." I looked toward Meramon who was advancing. "Now."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Takeru takes charge next chapter, as we continue towards Fanglongmon.


	24. SciFi and Missing Links

**Y/N:** I liked it, Takeru's part I mean. Also I enjoyed becoming Natsuni for a second time. Yay! I hope you like it too, and review if you want to…I hope you do! :P

**U/N: **U/N: Uhm... this chapter, along with the next one are written terribly. I don't know why. I am sorry, blah blah blaaaahhh... uhm... there was a lot to cram in here, and i think at one point, due to being sick and out of my mind all the time i'm pretty sure i actually forgot who was narrating, and in the next chapter i actually thought i was writing a Danny Phantom fanfiction for a few minutes there... anyway, i appologize, but i'm sick... at least i wrote it!  
Anyway... review it and stuff.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 24: Sci-Fi and Missing Links**

_**Takeru:**_

"How can we be sure he's leading us the right way?" Taichi whispered to Hikari who was walking next to me. He was, of course, speaking of Gennai who was marching off ahead of us all, having pushed his way through the long grass and into the lead, against his better judgment in order to lead us in the right direction. Honestly, did he think we were going to slip away like Daisuke? Most of us were much smarter than him… "I mean... he hasn't given us reason to trust him."

"I trust him." Hikari said simply. "I think he's really trying to help."

"If he was trying to help then he wouldn't be trying to kick us out." Taichi said, shaking his head. "But he is, it's almost as if he _wants_ the world to end."

Hikari shook her head with a very neutral look on her face. "I disagree. He thinks he's doing the right thing. We just have to show him that he's not."

"And how to you propose we do that?" Taichi said, a little grumpy that his own sister disagreed with his hypothesis.

Hikari shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know... but whatever you or anyone else comes up with will be a good enough plan for me." Taichi looked down to her, half smiled and then walked faster, practically storming away from us, clearly still upset about Hikari not agreeing with him.

"So what do you think we should do?" Hikari asked me. I had almost forgotten that she had known I was there. She hadn't been saying much to me lately.

"I think, if we can get rid of Fanglongmon, and maybe even Dragomon... and the Dark Masters apparently..." I trailed off for a moment, "Well if we can get rid of them all before Gennai kicks us out for good... then we would... in theory, be allowed to stay."

"But the worlds would still be in danger of becoming one." Hikari added slowly.

"Would that really be so bad so long as we were all still around to stop the evil?" I asked her simply, I looked away from her as she gave me a look that clearly said, 'you know that won't work,' and so I added, "You're right..."

"I know." She said with a smile.

"Well... the worlds supposedly combine when there is an imbalance right?" I asked her, trying to clarify what we had learned thus far as well as trying desperately to create an idea on the spot. She nodded slowly and I realized that I had to continue, so I just said whatever words came out, "Then we just have to make a perfect balance between the worlds."

"That... actually makes sense." It wasn't Hikari who had spoken though, it was Willis who had hurried to catch up to us now that Taichi was gone. Taichi intimidated Willis for reasons I didn't understand, but I didn't mind. As much as my plan was to get to know Willis, I didn't mind time alone with Hikari either.

"You think?" Hikari asked with a smile, slipping her fingers into Willis' and intertwining them. "Actually yeah... it does! So you think we should just make sure we have one digimon out with us so long as Kurayami's mother is in this world?"

Willis nodded, "I suppose..."

"Well actually..." I said, cutting into their conversation, "I was thinking that the balance has nothing to do with who is where... but if there's a connection between the two worlds..."

"Like the portal?" Hikari asked.

I shook my head, "No... like us. The digidestined... _We_ are the connection..."

"But if we could save the world just by being us... it would already be saved." Willis pointed out.

"Perhaps..." I said, "But maybe we need to... somehow be linked to both worlds..."

"Like being in two places at once?" Hikari asked.

I shook my head. "I'm not sure really..." I admitted, "I'm just rambling, trying to figure stuff out."

"Well you might be on to something." Willis smiled. "I had no idea you were so smart..."

"Thanks...?" I tried, "I think..." He nodded, realizing it was not the nicest thing to say in the world.

I went back to the thoughts that had been flying through my head for the past few hours at walking. For starters, I was really tired and had to sleep, but refused to do so. Patamon was on my head, taking a nap of his own, which at first I had been a little upset about... but I supposed he was just tired and happy to see me... or I hoped he was anyway. I was also confused as to where we were. There was tall green grass all around us, but there were still faded, greying trees surrounding us... I couldn't remember ever bein in this area before. And then the Dark Masters... they were a little intimidating the first time and with them being stronger... I could only imagine the strife they were going to put us through this time... Even just the thought of Peidmon sent unwanted shivers down my spine...

I tried to push that from my mind by paying attention to the others. Terriermon and Lopmon were not far away from Willis talking in hushed tones to one another. Michael, Koushiro and Mimi were walking together, Koushiro and Mimi's hands were wrapped together... just like Ken and Miyako's... just like Sora's and Yamato's... and just like Hikari's and Willis'... Taichi was eyeing Miyako's head as if it were a ticking time bomb, and she noticed, but was politely trying to ignore him. Jou, Mieyomon and Iori were walking side by side, neither of them were talking, but were both focused on saving their friends. Gabumon, Agumon, Demiveemon and Betamon were all playing merrily, running around us like children while Wormmon and Otamamon were still in Ken and Miyako's arms.

"You're wrong." Miyako said loudly, giving me something different to think about finally.

"Pretty sure I'm not." Ken responded just as loudly. "I would know. I've seen _every_ episode."

"And I haven't?" Miyako growled.

"You two should stop arguing!" Wormmon ordered.

"I will!" Miyako agreed, "Once he admits that I'm right!"

"But you aren't!" Ken growled.

"What are they arguing about?" Hikari asked from next to me.

"Some television program I assume." Patamon said groggily. "That's what I've gathered anyway."

"It was episode seventeen of season six!" Miyako growled.

"Episode _sixteen_." Ken growled. "I remember because Imol used his heat ray gun on Romiro, and that's why he found the Bog Monster!"

"Oh hold up!" Koushiro said, pulling away from Mimi and turning toward Ken and Miyako. "Is this really happening? Are you talking about Space Interlude?" Miyako nodded. "And what part?"

"Well Ken just doesn't remember what episode Romiro was forced to follow the Bog Monster which eventually led to his first wife's death!" Jou and Iori suddenly drew their attention toward the others.

"You're both wrong." Koushiro laughed, "That was in season ten."

"That's wrong..." Willis muttered. "It's season eight." I thought for a moment that Willis was going to jump into the argument but when Jou and Iori leapt in he just relaxed and let them figure it out.

"Ken's right." Iori argued.

"Actually Koushiro is." Jou snapped, "What would you know Iori, you're just a kid! You weren't even born when the first episode came out!"

Sora and Mimi exchanged glances that were easy to read... and they were not impressed with the others. I didn't blame them. I felt the exact same way... I had no idea what they were talking about and they were just being childish.

"Just accept that I'm right." Miyako argued, "It's my favourite show."

"Mine too!" Jou growled. "Momoe and I just re-watched some of it!"

"I want to argue too!" Lopmon chimed in with a grin. "I'm good at arguing!"

"Yeah, you are." Terriermon smiled.

"Oh thank you!" Lopmon said shyly.

"No problem..." Terriermon grinned slyly, "But I'm better!"

"NO YOU ARE NOT!" Lopmon roared as the others all started yelling and screaming at one another.

"Okay!" Mimi snapped, "Stop arguing! Especially about this!" Mimi had a point. Now wasn't the time to be arguing about something as trivial as a television show while the world was in danger.

"Yeah!" Sora said, rolling her eyes. "Besides... you're all wrong."

"Wait what?" Koushiro asked, shocked, just like the rest of us.

"It's series two, season 9 episode seventeen b." Mimi said laughing, as though it were obvious.

"And Romiro's first wife was killed on earth in a flashback in season two. It was his _second_ wife who was killed after following the Bog Monster." Sora laughed, "And you all call yourself nerds." Yamato was standing next to Sora gaping at her, apparently he had no idea that she knew anything about whatever this "Space Interlude" show was either.

Koushiro, Jou, Iori, Ken, and Willis all stared at Sora and Mimi in shock as Miyako hurried toward Mimi and threw her arms around her in a hug. Mimi, shocked, hugged Miyako back. "I love you Mimi!" Miyako cheered. "You're amazing! You too Sora!"

Ken and Koushiro exchanged awkward glances as Mimi and Miyako hugged.

"Let's end this argument right now, shall we?" Gennai asked loudly. He was standing up ahead, looking back at us with his eyebrows raised. "Now is the time to be saving the world while you have the chance... or should I send you all back to the human world so you can catch up on this Space Interlude?" Everyone was silent. As much as I agreed with Gennai, I wasn't happy about the tone that he spoke in. It was not only sarcastic and demeaning but kind of mean as well. There he was... standing with his arms crossed as everyone returned to the calm and almost depressing walk we had been in before.

The difference now though, was that Agumon and Gabumon were walking calmly beside their partners, and Demiveemon was riding Betamon's back as he followed behind Michael, Mimi and Koushiro. Miyako was no longer holding Ken's hand as she was busying herself with the goggles on her head as Ken held tightly to Wormmon and Otamamon who was whining about missing Daisuke and Jun. Patamon was awake this time though so that was good.

I wanted to talk to him but Gennai was still waiting for us with a disappointed expression etched upon his face, so I figured it could wait.

"I have a question for you digidestined." Gennai said, still in his demeaning voice. We were all staring up at him now. "Would you care for a break?"

"Miyako?" Sora asked, "You've got the goggles... you decide. Voting just causes trouble."

Miyako looked panicked instantly. "I don't know!" She cried out looking around at us all, "Let's just go!" Her eyes were closed tightly as if this was the hardest decision of her entire life. No one questioned her, or even made any form of upset gesture but she still looked as though she had ruined the group dynamic or something to that effect.

And then we were off again, walking calmly through the tall grass. I was almost scared of what we might find in here, but I knew it wouldn't be the dark masters, so whatever it might have been, wouldn't be too bad in comparison.

"So how has life been for you Takeru?" Patamon asked, "What happened in the last few years?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I got a job... graduated High school..."

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Patamon asked with a smile.

I felt my face turn red instantly as I shook my head slowly.

"But he could." Hikari said with a smile. "I know of three very pretty girls who have shown interest in you..." She giggled.

"And you're just telling him now?" Willis asked with a laugh.

"That's okay..." I told her, "I'm not interested."

"Oh...?" Willis asked, eyebrows raised, "I see..."

"Why not?" Patamon said, "She said they're pretty! You're not getting any younger, you'll need to get married sooner or later!"

"Do _you_ have a girlfriend?" I shot to him.

"Well no..." Patamon admitted.

"Then shove a sock in it." I said flatly.

Hikari and Willis were laughing, thankfully... I could tell they found it funny, and were not laughing at me... I wasn't in the mood to be confessing my love to Hikari to explain my not having a girlfriend... especially now that she seemed to be having this thing going on with Willis...

"This place looks familiar..." Jou said slowly.

"You're right!" Mimi chimed in. "I've definitely been here before..."

"Me too." Willis and Hikari said as one.

"Me three!" Otamamon smiled.

"Really?" Ken asked him.

"No, I just wanted to be included." Otamamon sighed, "Do you think Daisuke and Jun are here? I miss them... especially Jun..."

"Jun is on Earth." Ken reminded him.

"Right..." Otamamon sighed.

"I'm fairly certain I know where we are..." Koushiro said slowly, "Mimi you—"

"Where to next?" Gennai said cutting across us.

"Fanglongmon." Michael added instantly, "Remember?" I could tell he was being sarcastic, and judging by the smug look on Koushrio and Mimi's faces, they had just been talking about Gennai... or Jerk-nai as Mimi had taken to calling him.

Gennai glared toward the group of them and then cleared his throat. "What I meant was that we have one of two options now." He motioned behind him to a large tree. "One one side of this tree, is a long, but peaceful walk to the home of Fanglongmon... and on the other side is a shorter walk to the very same place... but it is much closer to where Iori had reportedly seen the Dark Masters. So now you must take your pick."

Miyako reached up to her head and grabbed her hair nervously as everyone turned to her. "I think..." She looked around and clamped her eyes shut again, "I think that that... because we're pressed for time... we should take the short and dangerous route... maybe?"

And then, once again, without saying anything we moved on, following Gennai, now much more carefully being closer to the Dark Masters, down the short path.

"All the better," Gennai said with a grin, "I wanted to stop by Primary Village on our way by anyway... just to check for the others."

"The others?" Yamato asked.

"You mean Palmon and them?" Mimi asked.

Gennai shook his head, but didn't look back. "I mean Daisuke and Kurayami... or have you already forgotten about them?"

"I haven't!" Demiveemon declared. "I swear!"

"I think I could probably just take us there using my powers..." Meiyomon spoke up suddenly.

"And why didn't you bring that up earlier?" Agumon asked.

"That would have helped a lot!"

"I didn't think of it?" Meiyomon tried.

"No matter," Gennai said, shaking his head, looking toward Meiyomon. "Your offer is kind but transportation by giant pink pillar of light is not the best way to sneak around."

"Touche..." Iori and Meiyomon said together.

"Do you really think we'll find Momoe and the others at Fanglongmon's place?" Hikari asked.

I nodded. "I do..."

"So sure?" Willis asked.

I nodded again, "I just have a feeling... a good feeling..."

"I like feelings." Terriermon smiled, "Especially the feelings I get when I'm with Willis..."

"Suck up." Lopmon said, rolling her eyes.

"Guys!" Willis growled, cutting their arguement short.

"Gennai!" Koushiro said loudly, "Could we head right for just a little?" It was then that I noticed the sun peaking through the thick tree cover, splashing onto Koushiro's face.

Suddenly Patamon sneezed as Gennai glared at Koushiro. "Absolutely not. That's even closer to the Dark Masters!"

"Just for a moment!" He tried, "I just need to be sure of something!" He was instantly walking the way he wanted to go anyway, dragging Mimi and Michael along with him.

"You all may as well follow..." Betamon said, running to catch up, "These are the three most stubborn people on the planet!"

"He has a point." Hikari said with a smile, following them instantly, dragging Willis with her, not once looking back for me to follow. I took a deep breath and followed slowly after Jou and Iori reluctantly went as well. Soon everyone was following them through the thick trees until finally we emerged into a large clearing. At first I thought that nothing was there but then I spotted a rather broken down ruins held up by broken trees and moss covered stones.

"This was where you got your crest..." I heard Hikari say to Willis.

Koushiro looked satisfied that he had come back to the ruins he had been talking about for the past three years. "Okay we can go now." He said with a smile, "I just wanted to be right again..."

"Stupid!" A small voice growled, "Making me get the firewood all the time! I don't even have hands!" We all spun around to see a small whitish coloured ball dragging a small piece of wood. He wasn't looking back but it wasn't hard to tell who he was.

"Upamon?" Iori gasped loudly.

Upamon let out a mangled yelp of surprise as he dropped his stick and spun around to face us. At first he looked scared, but he was suddenly very happy. "IORI!" He screamed with more enthusiasm that any of the other digimon had thus far upon finding their respected partner. Upamon was suddenly bounding across the grass, leaping into Iori's arms with a giant smile plastered across his face. "I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!"

"I missed you too!" Iori said loudly, hugging him tightly. Iori suddenly cleared his throat, realizing how much attention he was getting and then looked down to Upamon smiling.

"Did you take good care of Meiyomon?" Upamon asked.

Iori nodded and turned to Mieyomon, "Or the other way around..." Meiyomon smiled at Iori.

"I'm sorry," Mimi said, cutting into the reunion, "I was just wondering... the way you were talking... implied there were others—"

Upamon looked up at Mimi and smiled, "Motimon and Bukamon are inside!"

Jou let out a yelp and was suddenly racing toward the temple, leaping over Betamon and Demiveemon with Koushiro right behind him, Jou tripped right before the door and Koushiro skidded to a stop and helped him to his feet before the two of them charged inside to meet their digimon.

After only moments of hesitation Koushiro and Jou were racing back out to the rest of us, Bukamon floating around Jou's head and Motimon in Koushiro's arms.

"I was under the utmost impression that Gennai was not allowing any of you to return back here?" Motimon questioned Koushiro as they passed Gennai to whom Koushiro gave a look of triumph to.

"Don't question it Motimon!" Bukamon giggled, "I'm happy to see Jou!"

I could see that everyone was happy for them, but there was clearly a look of disappointment on Mimi, Sora, Miyako and Hikari's faces, each of whom had yet to find their digimon, and I couldn't help but notice everyone of us guys had been reunited with their digimon, except for Daisuke who _would_ have been if he hadn't run off...

"Reunion's are all very happy," Gennai said, "But—"

"How did you know I was going to be here?" Bukamon asked Jou loudly, cutting across Gennai.

"I didn't!" Jou admitted with a laugh. "Koushiro did!"

"Did you really?" Motimon asked, "Well that's wonderful! I'm glad you had the sense to check over this way for us!"

"I was actually just looking for the temple, it was only a coincidence that you were all here." Koushiro clarified.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." Motimon smiled, "It was instinct and our mutual bond that allowed for you to find me so easily."

"Sure..." Koushiro smiled, "That too..."

"As I was saying..." Gennai said once more, "Hikari, I want you to go back to the temple."

"What?" Willis gasped.

"Why?" I added.

"It's not safe for any of you, but especially not her. She should be locked up until this whole ordeal is over." Gennai explained, "I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but you need to go back."

"I think Miyako should decide." Hikari said. Everyone turned to Miyako, "You're our leader..."

"What's it gonna be?" Michael asked.

"Don't choose the wrong answer..." Meiyomon warned, "This could be crucial!"

Miyako was looking back and forth between us all as everyone tried to tell her their input at once.

"I think she may as well stay!" Yamato said quickly, "She'll be safe with all of us around her!"

"Well be like a super protective squad!" Agumon added.

"I think she should go back if Gennai says so." Taichi said, "It'll be safer that way."

"Well I think—" Sora tried.

"I DON'T CARE!" Miyako screamed, reaching up and ripping the goggles off of her head. She turned to Sora and whipped the goggles through the air toward her. "Take these back! I'm done with them!"

Sora instantly shoved them toward Yamato who grabbed then nervously. "But I don't want them..." He said.

"Give them to me!" Taichi smiled,

"Oh no you don't!" Sora said, instantly holding out her hands for the goggles.

"But..." Yamato said slowly.

"Come on Yamato, I'm your best friend." Taichi pleaded.

"I'm your girlfriend."

"Sorry bro..." Yamato said to Taichi as he dropped the goggles back into Sora's hands.

"Koushiro!" Sora said quickly, tossing them toward him. Koushiro reached up to grab them, dropping Motimon in the process, but another hand reached out of nowhere and caught them.

"I WILL BE YOUR NEW LEADER!" Mimi roared, placing the goggles on her head, as Koushrio apologetically scooped Motimon into his arms. "I AM SUPER MIMI! OBEY ME!" Everyone stared at her awkwardly as she cleared her throat. "My decision on the subject is simple. She's holding Willis' hand, he must be important to her, so he can decide what's best for her."

"That's such a good idea!" Miyako smiled, "I wish I thought of it. You're so smart and creative Mimi. And pretty."

Ken gave Miyako a strange look as everyone else turned to Willis.

Stupid Willis making Hikari's decisions. Super Mimi sucked. Hikari was perfectly capable of making her own decisions... why did Willis have to make them for her?

Willis smiled at Hikari, "I think she should—" Willis stopped as Taichi sent him a glare that was clearly a warning. Willis nervously cleared his throat and looked back and forth between Taichi and Hikari, "I think we should go back to the temple." Willis settled finally. I balled my fists in anger but didn't say anything.

Hikari looked up at him, shocked, she wanted to argue but knew enough to keep quiet.

"I'll escort you back to keep you safe." Willis smiled. "It'll be fun."

"Oh hey!" Michael said, stepping forward, "My baseball bat! I think I left it at the temple—you wanna grab that?"

"Sure thing..." Willis said.

"So how do goggles represent leadership?" Gabumon asked.

"No clue..." Betamon sighed.

"You wouldn't understand." Demiveemon scoffed.

"Only when your partner is a born leader who happens to look amazing in goggles will you every truly know." Agumon smiled.

"Koushiro would look great in goggles!" Motimon giggled.

"Jou's glasses are kind of like goggles!" Bukamon added.

As the others all started talking casually Hikari waved goodbye to Taichi and then turned to storm off... she wasn't going to say bye... she was just going to leave with Willis and his two digimon just because?

Suddenly she turned back and stared at me, and then smiled, running toward me. She hugged me tightly and then smiled as she pulled away. "I'll miss you..."

"Good luck..." I told her with a smile.

"Am I to gather that you won't miss me?" She asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Of course I will!" I told her with a smile, "I always miss you when you're not around!" My face suddenly fell as she giggled.

"I miss you too..."

"Hikari?" Willis said loudly from behind her.

"Better go..." She said, "Bye Takeru..." And then she turned to leave.

"Bye..." I said under my breathe.

"Ooohhh!" Patamon said childishly. "Takeru and Hikari, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"I thought I told you to shove a sock in it." I laughed at him nervously.

"You did." Patamon smiled, "But you're _totally_ in love."

_**Natsuni:**_

I'd gone without supper before. It wasn't anything new. Well, that's what I'd been trying to convince my stomach of. It was paining, wanting food. I pushed the thought out of my head. It really wasn't the best day to have skipped lunch. I'd only eaten a couple of candies at the movies. My mom was going to take me out to dinner. I supposed I shouldn't have felt bad for not calling to cancel. It wasn't like I actually had that option, but I kept wondering what she'd say when I got home.

If Iori ever found me anyway.

There weren't any windows in our cell. I didn't think I'd see much of anything besides the blackness of the hole we'd been stuffed in if there _were_ any windows, but it would have been a nice touch to the drab cell we were stuck in. I figured it had to have been early morning at the very least. My stomach was keeping me awake along with my determination to keep Momoe safe. I'd tried to convince her to sleep, but she said laying out on this floor wouldn't do her already aching back any good, and the baby wouldn't appreciate it much either. Noriko refused to sleep while I wasn't, saying something about how I would sabotage her and Iori's relationship to steal him for myself.

"Mmm," I grumbled, shifting myself so I was lying on my stomach. I'd hoped the weight I now had on it would keep it from starting to growl. The last thing I needed was for Momoe to start feeling guilty.

"Are you alright?" Momoe asked.

"I'm fine Ms Inoue," I told her, because really, I was. So I was a little hungry and trapped in a cell with my worst enemy being guarded by something that answered to the she-devil. I wasn't seriously injured, I wasn't isolated from humanity—though with Noriko…I couldn't be sure—and I wasn't scheduled to be killed in the immediate future at any rate. According to most movies, I was doing pretty well. They'd even given us non-poisoned food!

"You can call me Momoe, you know," she said softly. "You don't need to be so formal."

"She's always like that," Noriko said snobbishly. "She's really weird."

"I think it's sweet," Momoe said, and my respect for her just doubled. "It's very respectful, but I just don't see how being captives is cause for such formality is all."

"Alright…Momoe," I said, testing the name. It felt weird to call anyone older than myself by their first name. My mom had been very strict in her lectures. I would get a strike for this if she were there. Three strikes and I'd be grounded for a week. No movies or anything!

It kind of sucked.

I got to my feet. Lying down wasn't helping, and I was starting to get a little restless. I walked to the cell's bars, and looked down the hallway in both directions. Nothing was on the right. The left, where I'd expected to see the guard, was empty as well. I thought I saw someone headed our way from the hallway that was opposite to us though.

"Where are we?" I asked the moving figure.

"In the Digital World," the same gruff voice of our guard said. So that was where he went.

"Where's that?"

"Here," he replied.

Was that how he wanted to play?

"What are we doing here?"

"You are prisoners," he said. "You are to bring the digidestined to us."

"How can I do that if I don't know what that means?"

"You needn't do anything," he told me. "They will come for you."

Oh no. Iori and Mr Kido promised to save us. They _would_ come, and then they'd die. I saw it play out in my head. We were the bait. They'd come in, not knowing what to expect, and crash, boom, the bad guys win this round… I did _not_ like the sounds of that.

He stepped closer, close enough for me to make out some of his features. I was startled to find that he didn't look human at all, unlike the she-devil. He wasn't nearly as tall as her either. He was green all over, with long claws on both his hands and his bare feet. He carried a large club in his long, gorilla-esque arms, with spikes sticking out of it. He wore brown tattered shorts with a matching vest, and a loin cloth over the shorts. On top of his head, he had tufts of bright orange hair. He had two long pointed teeth protruding from his bottom gums, but he did not look frightening. No. He looked approachable, unlike the she-devil. I would've guessed him to be a goblin or a troll perhaps, not something inherently evil like her. No, he looked almost ordinary as he walked over to his chair—his guarding post I guessed-while carrying a plate with a large sandwich on it. A large delicious looking sandwich.

Just staring at the sandwich made my stomach growl. I cursed it—my stomach, not the beautiful sandwich—and risked a peek at Momoe. She was already looking guilty.

"You should have eaten something, your soup at least," she started.

"I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself is something happened to that baby just because I was too selfish to think of helping you feed it," I said, getting a dig against Noriko in while I tried to placate her.

"The baby would've been fine," she said. "It was just one meal."

"It _might've_ just been one meal," I reminded her. "We don't know when they'll feed us next. I'm thinking ahead."

There was a sound behind me, the scraping of chair legs. I turned to the cell's bars again. The goblin-or-troll was standing there looking at me expectantly.

"You did not eat?" he asked.

"No, I was thinking of the baby," I told him. "It needs more food than what they gave Momoe."

"You eat this then," he said, holding out half of his glorious sandwich towards me. "You need to eat. LadyDevimon told me to keep you alive. I want to keep you alive. You need to eat to do that."

"I won't die for missing a meal, but I do appreciate it," I said, taking the sandwich. I wasn't about to risk him changing his mind. And I knew he didn't poison it or anything, because he'd meant to eat it himself. And the look in his eyes made me think he really _did_ want us to stay alive. "Thank you," I said, giving him a smile. "You're kind of sweet, you know? Not at all like the scary girl."

"LadyDevimon is scary sometimes," he admitted. "But she has orders too."

That kind of put things in perspective. There was someone with more power than LadyDevimon, the she-devil herself. It was hard to believe that there was someone more terrifying, more powerful than her, telling her what to do just as she gave our guard orders.

"Huh," I said. It sounded strangled, but it was something. I took a big bite of the sandwich to keep me occupied. After I swallowed, I cleared my throat. "So, what's your name?" I asked.

So I was changing the subject to something a little less terrifying. Sue me.

"I am Goblimon," he said.

"Hi Mr Goblimon, I'm Natsuni Ando," I told him, holding out one hand for him to shake. He did, though it was rather awkward.

"I must get back now," he said looking down the hallways just as I'd done earlier. I bet he was looking for LadyDevimon, afraid to have her find him consorting with the prisoners.

"Right," I said. "Thanks again, for the sandwich."

He simply nodded and headed back for his chair. He really was a rather sweet villain…

…perhaps he wasn't a villain at all? I'd have to find that out.

"I can't believe it," Noriko whined. "We got pea soup and day old buns and you get…_that_!"

"She wasn't going to eat at all," Momoe scolded her.

"But it isn't fair. I'm starving," she moaned.

"No you aren't," I scoffed. "You just said you ate pea soup and a bun. I had nothing but a few gummy candies since breakfast, I think I'm hungrier than you."

"But yours looks _good_, ours sucked. Give me some of yours," she demanded.

"No," I said, holding my sandwich close to me. "Mr Goblimon gave it to me. I thought about sharing it, but now you can't have any!"

"Come on! Iori would have shared it with me," she said. I really didn't think the same, but let her believe what she wished.

"_I'm_ not _Iori_," I said pointedly.

"Girls, girls," Momoe interrupted us. "We can't fight. That crazy lady might come back."

I instantly felt bad. Just looking at Momoe as she hobbled over to us—her belly protruding quite far—to step in between our budding fight, made me feel guilty. She looked so tired. She really deserved far better accommodation…

"What was that?" Noriko asked.

I was so not falling for that.

But then Momoe gasped. They were both looking at the floor behind me. I turned to see something low to the ground with a long slithering tail following behind it crawling through the bars of our cell. I backed up until I was shielding Momoe. If that thing wanted to eat—or kill I suppose—us, then it would have to go through me before it could get the baby.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **It's a monster of a chapter next time, with five digidestined narrating for us, and a few Earth bits as well...wonder how long it'll be...


	25. Waiting

**Y/N:** Whoa. Super big chapter, but yeah, review if you want. I hope you want to. :P

**U/N: RAWR I am bold apparently today! This is a funny chapter—not really. Funny doesn't exist. Nothing happy exists in life. This was a hard, very… bland chapter. Hurray :D Anyway… review it and stuff.**

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 25: Waiting**

_**Momoe:**_

Natsuni was really a sweet girl, I thought, as she tried to protect me from that _thing_ crawling towards us. Though I thought she muttered something about it eating us… It was much too small to actually eat any of us. It didn't even reach my knees. It barely made it past my ankles. It was likely just a giant rat.

And that had me inching further away from it. I did not want to be bit by a disease infested rat while I was pregnant. Though my baby hadn't moved since I was brought into this "Digital World"—I thought that was what Jou and Miyako had called it. Usually it was quite active, keeping me up all hours of the night. I wasn't about to tell Natsuni—or Noriko—about my worries though. She was already trying so hard. I could handle this. There was only a slight chance that the different composition of the worlds affected my baby badly. Maybe it was just sleeping… One could always hope…

"What is it?" Noriko hissed from her spot right behind me.

"I don't know," I told her.

"Hit it with something!" she ordered Natsuni.

"No," Natsuni snapped. I had a feeling there was a lot of bad blood between those two. They were always quick to anger, and loud arguments were soon to follow.

"Please don't," came a soft and adorable voice.

"Ah," Noriko said, trying to scream but was paralyzed by fear.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Nyaromon," the small thing said. Now that I had a closer look, it appeared to be a cat's head, with a long tail stretching out behind it. _It must be a lower-level digimon…_ "I remember you two, and you Noriko. Do you know where Hikari is?"

"Hikari?" Noriko repeated.

"Hikari Yagami?" I clarified, realizing that this was the small digimon that the winged lady went to collect before bringing us here.

"Yes," Nyaromon said excitedly. "She's here?"

"Not in Captivity Central," Natsuni said. "But that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," Nyaromon said fervently. "They want Hikari very badly. I must go to her."

"Are you stuck here too?" I asked. "But you escaped from your cell."

"Yes," Nyaromon admitted. "I don't know how to get out. But LadyDevimon left a long time ago to take part in a big battle. I fear she'll be back soon. I wish to get out before she is."

"I'm afraid we can't help you with that," I told her.

"I can't believe he sent me to the desert! What did I do to deserve that? I was winning!"

"Oh no," Nyaromon gasped. "There she is."

Natsuni, Noriko and I held our breaths as she got closer. She was coming down the left hallway, where she'd taken Nyaromon when we'd arrived.

"And you!" she demanded to…what had Natsuni called him…Goblimon? "Why did you not watch the digimon's cage? She's not there, you've screwed up my mission."

"I was to watch the humans," Goblimon said. "Not the digimon."

"The humans can't go anywhere. The digimon had the power to escape. It needed the watching," she hissed at him. I saw this as the opportunity to scoop Nyaromon into my hands, and tuck her under my shirt, at the bottom of my pregnancy bump—though it was really more like a hill at this point. I was sure it looked a little strange, with me holding her up, but my shirt was loose enough that you couldn't see she was there, and she used her tail to help support herself.

I was just in time, as the digital woman came into view. "Have any of you seen the traitor digimon?"

"What does this digimon look like?" Natsuni asked.

"I suppose it was too much to ask of such simple creatures," she said disdainfully. "Have you heard anything?" she asked Goblimon.

We were tense. It was make-it or break-it time.

He looked at the woman almost fearfully, before looking into the cage, scanning each of us slowly. He paused at Natsuni, who shook her head carefully. If I hadn't been watching I would have missed it. He turned back to the lady and shook his head too.

"Nothing," he said.

"Well get looking!" she ordered before storming off.

We all sighed with relief, Noriko looking a little worse for wear, her face almost white.

"Your friend," Goblimon said after a short while. "Where did she go?"

"Why do you ask?" I asked as bravely as I could. I couldn't let him give Nyaromon to LadyDevimon, because she was a living, breathing digimon. I couldn't let her be killed, especially if Hikari felt the same way about her that Jou felt about his Gomamon.

"She needs to get out now," Goblimon said, oddly enough just to Natsuni.

"She doesn't know the way," Natsuni told him.

"It is good she is not here," he said, though he looked like he knew she really was. It was as if he was putting on an act. "Or else she would know the way out. She could have slipped passed me, and gone down the hallway directly behind me." I looked over his shoulder directly across from the cell. "She could have taken a left, and then taken another left, followed by a right and found the lift to bring her to the surface. Yes, it is very good she did not do that."

"Or hear that," Natsuni agreed with a grin.

"Yes, or hear that," he agreed. "Now I must go looking for your friend. I know she did not do just that, so I will not have to check that path." He gave us a meaningful look and stumbled along the path opposite to which LadyDevimon took. His arms were dragging along the ground, one still clutching his scary looking club.

"Nyaromon," I whispered. "Did you get that?"

"Yes," she said, allowing herself to fall from beneath my shirt. "But what about you? I can't get you out of this cage."

"You won't have to," I told her. "Just find Jou and Iori and Hikari. Tell them where we are, but don't let Hikari come. We need her to be safe. Alright?"

"Right," she said. "I'll come back for you. I know the way now."

"Good," I said. "Now hurry!"

She sent us one last look before speeding off down the hallway. I could only hope she found the way out alright.

_**Sora:**_

I wasn't very happy to watch Hikari go... it didn't seem fair. Gennai hadn't even specified why he wanted her to leave so much... he just said it wasn't safe for her—but it wasn't safe for any of us either, so why weren't we all being sent back to the temple?

It just didn't add up.

I wanted to ask him why he had done what he had, but instead I walked in silence next to Mimi and Miyako. Mimi had taken to marching in the front of the group, sending Gennai to the back of the group once more. I had to admit, the goggles looked good on her...

"Can I paint them pink?" She had asked Taichi moments after she had placed them on her head.

"No." Taichi had responded flatly without even a second's thought.

"But I think it would look better if they were pink. They'd match my outfit better." That was true, it would have matched her outfit better...

"No Mimi." He said flatly.

Mimi didn't let that get her down though, that was when she had pointed dramatically and started leading us. Miyako and I found ourselves walking with her as the others all bonded with their digimon. It felt a little upsetting to say the least that everyone had their digimon except the four of us, Hikari included... I looked over my shoulder and saw Taichi and Yamato walking together with Gabumon and Agumon, Koushiro was walking by himself nearby with Motimon in his arms. Michael was off to the side with Betamon and Demiveemon who was still pouting silently about missing Daisuke which was better than Otamamon who was practically sobbing now due to missing Jun so much. He was sitting in Ken's arms next to Wormmon. Takeru's face was bright red as Patamon spoke to him in whispered tones. Jou, Iori, Meiyomon, Upamon and Bukamon were in the back of the group, other than Gennai of course, talking to each other quickly and excitedly.

It almost felt like old times... only... Hikari and Daisuke were both gone with the others... and Biyomon wasn't back yet... I wasn't even sure that Mimi knew where she was going... she was proudly leading us through the trees, the grass, the mud, the puddles of black water, and everything else that came our way, but at the same time she looked slightly confused. I didn't want to question her though... The sun was rising higher in the sky as I'd noted from the little gaps between the trees. We only had until the end of this very day before Gennai forced us to leave the Digital world, and quite frankly, that was not something I was looking forward to.

From what I had picked up on in the time we'd been together Gennai was not okay with us being here because of the worlds combining. I understood that was a problem, but there had to be a way to fix that as well... if only I could figure it out. I was also sort of confused as to why we weren't allowed to be in a relationship with the other Digidestined... it was somehow supposed to be dangerous or whatever Mimi had said. I had only heard the biased version of it from her, but I agreed with her anyway.

I looked back to Yamato who looked over and smiled. I smiled back at him and then turned away again. I couldn't see how something so... perfect... could be bad.

"So when are you and Yamato going to get married?" Miyako asked suddenly, bringing me out of my thoughts. I looked to Mimi and smiled, that wasn't the first time that question had been asked.

"I'm not planning on getting married any time soon." I told her simply.

"So you're saying that you don't want to be married?" Miyako asked.

"No I do! Just not right now." I told her.

"So not to Yamato?" Miyako asked.

"No—I do want to get married to him!" I said, a little frustrated at this conversation already.

"So you're saying that if he asked you to marry you you'd say no?" Miyako asked.

"Yes." I said.

"You'd say yes?" She asked, excited.

"No! I'd say no!" I insisted.

"Oh..." Miyako said, "What if that ruined the relationship?"

"I don't think it would Miyako. Why is everyone in such a hurry to get married?" I asked her. "Marriage is a lifelong commitment, and if I'm planning on spending my whole life with him, then why would I need to say yes immediately? I would say no."

"I see your point..." Miyako said. "I guess that makes sense..."

"If Ken asked you to marry him what would you say?" I asked her.

"Well I thought I would say yes..." Miyako said slowly, "But I guess now, after this... I'd probably say no..."

"Don't let me decide for you!" I insisted, "Just do what you think is right!"

"I agree with you though..." Miyako said twirling her hair in her fingers. Slowly she looked back to Ken and smiled, "I think waiting... waiting is the right choice." I smiled at her comfortingly as Mimi stood between us leading the way. "Besides... he's moving away in two months to go to University..."

I put my hand on her shoulder and smiled. I didn't know what to say yet, but I figured just letting her know that I was there for her would be enough... at least for now.

"Okay, I'm just going to admit it." Mimi said a little nervously. "I'm lost."

_**Miyako:**_

I kept repeating Sora's advice in my mind. Over and over, on a loop. It made sense. Waiting. But at the same time, if I decided to wait, and say no, would he still want to be with me? Would he want to wait too?

And he was going to school in the fall. We only had two more months together until the holiday season. There were bound to be other girls out there that had much more exciting futures in mind than me. Prettier girls—not that Ken had ever made me feel ugly or self-conscious, quite the opposite. He made me feel like I was the queen of the world or something.

Sometimes I didn't feel like I quite measured up to his expectations though.

And I knew I definitely didn't make him feel the same way. I wasn't so in tuned with him. I tried really hard, and loved him so much, but I think there was always something holding me back…

I was afraid for when he went to school. I knew that was the problem. I was afraid that despite how much I loved him, we wouldn't be able to make a long-distance relationship work.

They hardly ever did.

And it wasn't like I could just enroll in the same school he was just so I wouldn't have to leave him when those two short months passed. That would be stupid. And desperate. And he'd totally catch on. I didn't want him to know I was worrying about it. He didn't seem to be. He was the same way he always was. Entirely sweet and attentive and caring. The perfect guy essentially. He was walking next to me, his hand holding mine—after he'd passed Otamamon to me just so he could—smiling at Wormmon as they conversed. But every so often he'd peek over my way, just to see if I was feeling left out.

But I wasn't.

I had a lot of stewing to do.

There was this whole thing with my separation anxiety, but then there was Momoe.

How could she _not_ tell me she was pregnant! I was her baby sister. The only sibling she had that was friends with both her and Jou. I was pretty sure I was the only one that even liked Jou. Mantarou was just over protective of all of his sisters, so it wasn't surprising. He didn't like Ken either. _Ken_! But Chizuru was a different case entirely. She liked Ken, said he was perfect for her little sister, and she was happy to see me so happy. She'd never said anything like that about Jou, and he loved Momoe a whole lot. You could tell—especially now, with all the worrying he was doing and how hard he was trying to go and find her. No. Chizuru complained about Jou endlessly. How disappointed she was that Momoe chose a guy that was so much more interested in his studies than planning out dates and meeting the family.

So Jou had only been to a couple family dinners in the last three years… So what? He was busy with schooling, trying to get a stable career sorted out, a job he'd love just a little less than Momoe…and now the baby.

I was the only sister she had that supported them full-heartedly. So why didn't she trust me? Was she just scared that I'd finally join the bandwagon and be disappointed in her too?

I'm thrilled to have a niece or nephew. Honest. I would have been thrilled to have known…maybe six months ago, so I could have been a part of it. I could've worked with her and helped her through whatever crisis she seemed to think she was in. I could have been there when she and Jou told our parents. I would've even gone with them when they told Jou's dad and brothers if they wanted me too.

I missed so much.

Because she didn't trust me.

"Are you alright?" Ken asked me softly, rubbing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.

"Fine," I lied, squeezing his hand, urging him to believe me. "I'm just thinking."

"Not of anything happy," he noted.

"No, it's happy. Some of it," I said honestly.

"But some of it's less than…thrilling?" he questioned.

"Yeah," I said. "Something like that."

"We'll find Hawkmon if that's what you're worried about," he said comfortingly.

Great. Just another trouble to add to the list. I'd been trying so hard not to think about the chance that I might not get to see him…

"Thanks," I said instead. I'd let him believe that was the problem. This was something I needed to take up with Momoe first, before I talked with him. He wouldn't understand. His brother had been gone a long time. I didn't want to be the one to pull up the memories he kept buried.

I knew he found it awkward every time my mom asked him if he had any siblings. She just _could not_ remember that his answer was always the same, always "Not anymore." Sometimes I wished I could just slap her…but I couldn't, since she was my mother and I loved her dearly. My dad however was hilarious with his ways to try and weasel the conversation around her standard question. He tried so hard to change the subject, but he just wasn't subtle.

Less subtle than Ken even, and that was saying something.

Any time I mentioned anything about his upcoming school year, he literally changed the subject without even giving me an evasive answer.

"_Oh, when are you moving up to the dormitories?"_

"_Hikari's mom made celery cake again yesterday…"_

Yeah, it was that bad.

He didn't seem worried though, like I said. He just wouldn't mention anything about it.

Maybe…just maybe, he was in denial, and he'd miss me as much as I would miss him?

No.

That was just far too hopeful on my part. He hadn't even planned anything special for us to do before he left. I still didn't even_ know_ when he was going to leave.

"Okay, time to get your mind off the depressing stuff," he said with a smile. His smile was just so cute! I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"What should we do about it then?" I teased.

"Well," he said with a sly grin. "We're walking, so kissing's out."

"Darn," I said with a fake pout.

"You could always talk about kissing," Otamamon suggested.

I blushed instantly. I'd forgotten that I'd been holding him. And he'd listened in on our conversation. It was all very embarrassing for me.

"Jun talks about kissing Shuu all the time," he continued. "It's the next best thing, she says."

"I don't think I feel all that comfortable with _talking_ about _kissing_, actually," I told him.

"I don't like the sound of it either," Wormmon said dryly.

"I thought you were happy for us?" Ken teased him.

"Oh, I am," he said quickly. "I just don't want to hear about it."

"Rawr."

"What was that?" I asked stopping immediately.

"What was what?" Yamato asked behind me.

"There was a noise," I said with a shaky voice.

"Where," Mimi said boldly, though I could tell she was scared too. She was just too amazing to show it.

"I don't know," I replied.

"We'll just have to wait quietly for a minute to see if we can hear it again," Sora suggested.

"I thought Mimi was leader now," Taichi grumbled.

"She is," Takeru said with a laugh. "But Sora's her best friend. She's going to listen to her anyway."

"I thought _I_ was her best friend," Jou joked.

"Quiet," Koushiro announced.

"Oh thank you," Mimi said happily. "We'll hear it much better now."

He rolled his eyes at her before giving her a pointed look. She gasped and mimed zipping her lips together.

"Rawr," the thing said again.

"Did you hear that?" Michael asked.

"Yeah," Iori said. "It was fairly loud. _Everyone_ heard it…"

"Right…" Michael said sheepishly.

"We should get ready for when it attacks…" Agumon suggested.

"Good idea," Gabumon agreed.

"I'm big, and I'm strong, rawr," the voice said again. It was closer now. And it struck me as childish. The way it spoke was as if it were playing a game…not trying to kill us.

"He's getting close," Motimon said.

"Oh dear, Jou, we should digivolve, right?" Bukamon asked.

"Er—" Jou said, but it was too late, the digimon had jumped out into the open a few metres ahead of us, to the right.

"It's just a baby," DemiVeemon said with a laugh. "What can he do?"

"I'm big," the digimon protested, having heard him. "I'm a rookie. You're only in-training. Who's the baby now?"

"Aww," I said. I couldn't help myself. He was adorable. A bright golden fur covered the lion cub. He stood on four feet and looked like he was about to pounce on us.

"I'm cool," he said looking to me. "Not cute."

"Right," I said. "Sorry."

"It's Leormon," Patamon announced.

"Who're you?" he asked Patamon.

"Digidestined," Gennai interrupted. "We don't have time for this."

"No," Leormon gasped looking from face to face. "The digidestined. You have changed greatly."

We were all shocked. His childlike demeanor fell in an instant. He was a wise old digimon instead.

"I had thought I'd never see you again," he continued. He looked for faces he could name. "Mimi, Jou. Is that young Takeru?"

"I'm Takeru yeah," Takeru said looking at him strangely.

"Taichi," Leormon said staring at him longer. "Sora."

"Yamato," Yamato said awkwardly. Koushiro looked at him strangely. "What? He missed you too Koushiro."

"Yamato and Koushiro?" Leormon said.

"Not to be rude," Iori said. "But we don't remember you."

"You wouldn't," Mimi said. "You didn't meet Leomon. That's who you were right? Leomon and then SabreLeomon?"

"No," Taichi and Yamato said in disbelief. I shook my head in confusion. I had no idea who he was.

"You died," Sora said softly.

"And digimon are reborn into eggs that are located at Primary Village," Koushiro reminded her.

"We need to keep moving if we want to reach our current destination any time soon," Gennai announced. I rolled my eyes. I couldn't even remember which destination was our current one. Apparently he'd decided to try and find Daisuke and Kurayami who left on their own accord before my _pregnant_ sister and Iori's friends.

"Come with us, Leormon," Mimi suggested, though with the way she held herself you could tell she was demanding it with the power of the goggles. "We have some catching up to do."

_**Ken:**_

Finding Leormon was an odd—but not unwelcome—occurrence. Mimi was sticking to him like glue, and since he seemed to know where Primary Village was, Gennai was back at the back of the procession. Mimi was in charge after all, and she'd demanded that someone she actually _trusts_ help her lead us there.

I wasn't sure what Gennai thought we'd find when we got there. If Daisuke and Kurayami had thought to go to Primary Village, they'd have done it ages ago. We'd been in the Digital World for a long time after all. They'd have finished up there and gone on to the next stage in their ridiculous plan. What were they even doing wandering around such a dangerous place alone? They didn't even have a digimon to help them.

They didn't have us either.

Jou was finally talking again. Leormon managed to get him to laugh. Actually laugh. I hadn't thought that could happen as easily as the lion digimon made it seem. Not until we found Momoe at least. Iori wasn't too pleased, I could tell, that he'd lost his determined partner. He couldn't see that Jou was using this as a welcome distraction.

"Do you think Gennai was right?" I heard Sora whispering to Koushiro.

"About what in particular? He's said a lot of things that he didn't have sufficient evidence for since we've got here," he said with a frown. Someone else wasn't happy with Gennai then… That anti-fan club of his was getting pretty big lately.

"About digidestined dating each other," she said with a small wince.

"No," he said firmly. "I don't believe that. And until one of us 'drops dead' as Mimi put it, we won't have any proof whatsoever that it is really even a possibility. Hikari is the _only_ one to have gotten sick since leaving too."

"Kurayami I think," Sora pointed out.

"Two then," Koushiro said. "But Hikari had always been like that before being introduced to the Digital World. I don't think she was about to drop dead. She just hadn't been given the proper diagnosis."

As if that proved that Gennai was wrong. It just proved that Koushiro was too hard-headed to be open to possibility.

"Hm," Miyako murmured, looking worried.

"What is it?" I whispered. I didn't want them to know I'd been listening in on their conversation.

"What if Gennai's right?" she asked. I wasn't the only one that had been listening then.

"You don't want to date anymore?" I asked. I didn't like that idea. Not one bit.

"No, that's not what I'm saying," she said. "I'm worried about the baby though, because of it."

"What do you mean?" I asked. She'd lost me already.

"If our genetic make-up is screwed over, then Jou's is too, and though Momoe's wasn't, is it now that she's stuck here as a prisoner? And then if hers is, then the baby's is even worse, isn't it? With Momoe's genes getting screwy while pregnant, and it already having half of Jou's unstable genes…"

"I doubt Gennai's right," I said. "There's no proof."

God, I sounded like Koushiro.

"What if its genes are too unbalanced though?" she asked with a whimper.

"Uh," I said, trying to come up with something, anything to comfort her. "Well, this whole unbalance is based on the idea that our genes are converted to digital data, correct? Well, if we're half digital or whatever Gennai was trying to explain, why doesn't he claim that our digimon aren't? They spent so much time in Earth, that it hardly makes sense that only we have been altered, but he's never said anything about them…"

"You're right," she said. "And with how pregnant Momoe is, chances are the baby'll be born while she's in captivity, so it'll be surrounded by digital data… Oh no. What if it's born while she's in captivity?"

"Miyako," I started again, only to be cut off by Mimi.

"We're here!" she said with a happy laugh.

"I wonder if Elecmon is here too," Takeru asked Patamon.

"He should be," Patamon responded. "It's his job to take care of them all."

"What exactly are we here for?" Taichi asked when we just stood at the edge of the strangely decorated area of the Digital World…except, it was kind of desolate, like the rest of the place was, and lacked its usual charm. It didn't look so much like a baby nursery anymore, but rather a morgue.

"Wow," Agumon said looking around, noticing the same thing I did. The baby cradles were fewer than normal I thought, but they still had happy—and some crying—baby digimon in them, begging for attention.

"They are so cute," Miyako said, taking Otamamon with her to go and play with the nearest baby. I had a feeling she thought Hawkmon or Poromon more likely would be there. Or at least hoped that was the case.

"Iori," Meiyomon said. "Let's go look around."

"Sure Meiyomon. But not too long," he said. "I don't want to waste time if they're not going to be there."

Right. He was antsy about finding and freeing Natsuni and Noriko. And Momoe too to a degree I supposed.

"Oh, oh," Upamon said happily. "We should look over there first!" The three of them set off, searching the newly-made-morgue-esque nursery for nothing in particular.

"We could look around too," Motimon suggested to Koushiro. "We might find something of vital importance."

"Sure," Koushiro told him, letting his little pink digimon lead the way.

"It doesn't look like Daisuke or Kurayami are here," Jou commented.

"It doesn't look like anyone is here," Bukamon added.

"No, look, there's Elecmon," Yamato said.

"He doesn't look too happy," Gabumon added.

"Have you made any progress Gennai?" the small red digimon asked when he arrived. He didn't waste time with pleasantries.

"I'm afraid not," Gennai said gravely. "We did win our last defensive fight however. We are not out of this battle yet."

"Have you seen two digidestined?" DemiVeemon asked outright. "Daisuke is missing…"

"No humans have been here until you," Elecmon informed us. There went Gennai's only idea of where to find Daisuke and Kurayami…

"What of your status?" Gennai asked disappointed by Elecmon's answer.

"So many eggs are appearing every day," Elecmon said. "But few are hatching at a time. Soon there won't be room for them all." He gestured over to patches of the village that I hadn't realized were filled with eggs. He'd moved them all out of the nursery portion to leave the hatched digimon room to move about.

"This doesn't look good," Betamon commented.

"How fast do baby digimon grow up?" Michael asked. "There aren't many here."

"The system is backed up. Too many are trying to reload at the same time," Elecmon explained. "They're hatching with decreasing speed. It'll be down to one a day soon. But once hatched they _are_ growing at an increasing rate. It's the only thing keeping this place running."

"And they're all dying in this war?" I asked softly.

"Ken," Wormmon said. "We are digimon. It's good that we get reborn, just like I was for you, and Patamon for Takeru."

"And Lopmon for Willis," I added. "But it's getting bad out there isn't it?"

"It's not _getting _bad Ken," Wormmon corrected. "It's been two and a half years since that point. It _is_ bad out there."

_**Shuu:**_

We were running toward the building, hoping against all odds that the front door was open. Jun was the first there and she grabbed the door with her dainty little fingers, ripping it open. My heart swelled extensively as the door opened... we'd be safe!

She practically dove into the building with me right behind her.

We were safe! But as my logical sense kicked in I realized we weren't. Somehow we'd have to make sure he wasn't able to get into the building! I looked around and found a custodian's kart next to a bathroom door. I hurried to grab the mop that was leaning against it.

I was quick to shove the mop through the handles on the door. I realized suddenly that a plastic mop wasn't going to hold the digimon at bay! I looked around to find Jun and run with her, but she was gone. My heart began to beat quickly as I scanned the hall for her, and practically skipped a beat as Jun jumped out of the bathroom with a metal pipe in her hand, her pants soaking wet.

"Here!" she tossed the pipe toward me and I caught it with a grin on my face. Jun never ceased to amaze me. I turned quickly and shoved the pipe through the handles like the mop.

"Let's go!" I told her quickly, grabbing her hand and running. "We have to get to the West Wing."

"Why?" She asked quickly, "What's down there?"

"My Professor..." I told her slowly.

I could tell she was about to say something but she was interrupted by a loud bang and a scream. Jun followed suit with a scream of her own, looking over her shoulder. "What does he want?"

"I don't know..." I told her simply, leading her around a corner and down the white hallway. There was no one there, which I found odd as there was not only a custodial kart in the middle of the hallway, but also a few cars in the parking lot... Finally I rounded the last corner and skidded to a stop in front of a large mahogany door.

I tried to open the door but it was locked, so I slammed my fist into it repetitively.

"Who's there?" I heard a man ask from the other side.

"It's me!" I said quickly, "Shuu Kido!"

Without another word I heard scraping from inside the classroom and then finally the door was thrown open and standing in the doorway was Haruhiko Takenouchi.

"Come in quickly!" He said as his eyes fell onto Jun. "Who's this?" A loud smash filled the hallways indicating that Meramon had gotten into the building.

"There will be time for introductions later." I shot at him. "Right now we need to hide." The three of piled into the classroom filled with long wooden desks and computers.

"Help me barricade the door." Haruhiko said sharply. I turned around and with Jun's help we pushed a large desk in front of the door. I sighed with relief and leaned against the wall, my eyes closed. But they shot open at the sound of Jun's scream as she came face to face with another digimon.

_**Tatum:**_

Mary Kennedy was getting on my nerves to say the very least. She was loud, annoying, and confused. It was almost as if she'd ever been out of her house before, and was so scared of everything that moved. And along with all of that she was complaining loudly about how Willis should have called her if he was planning on getting himself into trouble.

"I don't understand!" She said loudly, "What is that?"

"That's a metal detector..." I said looking away from her, hiding my face, pretending I didn't know her. "They have to make sure you're not going to kill anyone by bringing a bomb or a gun onto the plane or anything."

"Are you telling me that they let murderers onto the plane?" She cried out. "I am _not_ getting on that plane! It's not safe! I'll die!"

"No!" I shot at her with a scowl. "They have the metal detectors so murderers can't—" She cut me off with a mangled scream.

"I'm going to die!" She cried, "Someone save me!"

I looked around nervously and then bit my bottom lip as I turned to her. "You need to calm down!" I hissed, "You're attracting too much unwanted attention!"

"I'm going to die!" She was now hyperventilating. "Willis goes on these planes twice a month... OH MY GOD! MY SON COULD BE DEAD! HE COULD DIE AT ANY MOMENT! MURDERERS! MURDERERS ON THE PLANE!"

"Mary!" I hissed, "Calm dow—"

"Excuse me miss," A man said, stepping into our conversation. Judging by his attire he was a security guard. "You're going to have to calm down so you can get on that plane in peace, or you're going to have to leave."

"I'm not getting on that plane!" Mary growled, "I could die!"

"There's a _very_ unlikely chance of that happening miss..." The man said.

"HELP ME!" Mary cried out.

"Miss, I'm going to escort you out of this building now." He said taking Mary's hand and dragging her gently. Mary was still looking around like a lunatic, breathing heavily as if she was going to die at any second. "You too." The man said looking at me.

"What?" I gasped, "Why? I didn't do anything!"

"You're with her, yes?" He asked.

"Yes, but—" I tried.

"But nothing." He said flatly. "Come along. We'll get your things and send you on your way." I followed him with a pout and thought to myself. How was I going to get to Japan then? Michael was avoiding me, or in danger and either way I needed to see him... there had to be a way...

And suddenly... there was.

_**Hikari:**_

I was letting Willis lead the way. I had never been good at geography and I couldn't remember the way back to the Temple. Willis had decided to take a short cut through the trees. I wasn't sure if he was going the right way or not, but even if he wasn't I wouldn't mind too much... I was ready for an adventure anyway, and going back to the temple wasn't going to help me find my digimon.

"I just don't understand why it's always me!" I said, rather irritated. Willis was listening to me with an open mind but I could tell he was just agreeing with me to make me feel better. He clearly thought it was a good idea to keep me safe... "Why am I always the one in trouble? I mean, you're in just as much trouble as I am... so why am I the one who has to go into hiding?"

"Well to be fair, I'm going into hiding too." He pointed out.

"Only because Taichi wanted you to protect me." I argued.

"That's not true." He said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I wanted to protect you because I care about you. I can't imagine what life would be like if you were hurt."

I smiled at him and nodded. "I..." I wasn't sure what to say to him so I was thankful that Lopmon and Terriermon interrupted at that moment.

"Why aren't you arguing with me?" Terriermon asked loudly as Lopmon walked on her own toward the temple ahead of us.

"I don't really feel in the mood." Lopmon said.

"Oh not this again!" Terriermon sighed as he hurried to catch up to Lopmon, "Hug me!" He stretched his arms out.

"No..." Lopmon said trying to push Terriermon away. "Terriermon I don't want to!"

"Yes you do!" Terriermon insisted, wrapping his arms tightly around Lopmon whose face fell flat.

"Terriermon... I'm not in a hugging mood." Lopmon said as Terriermon tried to force Lopmon to hug him.

"What's wrong with Lopmon?" I asked Willis.

He shrugged his shoulders and looked down. "I don't know... she sometimes just... stops being her usual happy self and just gets into this sad mood... she doesn't like to talk to us about it... she says we wouldn't understand." He looked to me and tried to smile before turning back to Lopmon who had finally pushed Terriermon away.

I decided that I was going to talk to her myself, girl to girl, so I hurried toward her and scooped her into my arms and stepped to the side making sure I could still see Terriermon and Willis through the trees.

"Why did you do that?" Lopmon asked, looking up at me with big eyes. "Are you kidnapping me?"

I shook my head kindly, "No... no I'm not."

"Then why did you—?" She tried.

"What's wrong?" I asked, jumping in and getting straight to the point. "Why are you upset?"

Lopmon looked away from me immediately. She looked to the ground and wiggled around a little in my arms. "I'm not." She said finally.

"Lopmon..." I insisted, "I know something's wrong... I know you think Terriermon and Willis wouldn't understand—and I get that. Really I do... boys... am I right?"

Lopmon giggled and nodded, "They're so silly!"

I smiled at her, "But I'm not a boy... us girls need to stick together and help one another out. So what is it? What's upsetting you?"

Lopmon shrugged her shoulders and then spun around and looked up at me again, "I just miss her."

"Who?" I asked instantly.

"I don't know." Lopmon admitted with a small sigh. "I just miss her."

"Well, whoever it is... I'm sure you'll meet up with her again... someday." I told her with a smile as I held her closer to me. "I promise... I'll help you do it too."

Lopmon smiled at me, but then shook her head. "You don't have to do that... once you find Gatomon you should spend your time with her... I'll figure it out... don't worry about me..." I shook my head, but she spoke again before I had the chance. "Please don't tell Willis and Terriermon?"

"I won't." I said firmly, "They wouldn't understand anyway." We both laughed a little and then I looked back to Willis with a smile. I moved back toward him but stopped myself instantly.

"What was that?" Lopmon and I asked together.

I had heard something moving in the trees behind me. I spun around instantly and screamed as a familiar face stepped out of the bushes. Everything looked menacing, from his long pointed nose, his round face, and the red bandana to his blue overalls, the large wooden cross on his back and the large metal hammer in his hand.

"Puppetmon...?" I managed to say.

"And so we meet again?" Puppetmon asked with a grin as he crept towards me.

"Blazing ice!" Lopmon roared, leaping from my hands and shooting shards of pink ice toward Puppetmon who didn't even bother dodging them. The ice hit his wooden skin and shattered, inflicting no pain.

"Puppet Pummel!" Puppetmon laughed, raising his hammer.

I was suddenly being pulled to the ground as I saw Terriermon leaping over my head. "Buddy Blast!" He roared as a green ball of... whatever it was shot from his mouth.

"Hikari—go!" Willis, who had pulled me to the ground, said. "Just go hide! We've got this!"

"I don't always want to hide!" I insisted with a sigh. "It's not fair!"

"Well when you have a digimon partner to help you, you can stay." Willis said. It sounded fair enough so I nodded and pulled myself to my feet.

"Good luck..." I said, looking back at the others and hurrying off.

It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would to have Willis tell me to hide, he was just trying to help, he wanted me safe... he was just trying to be the hero.

I worked my way through the trees, weaving in and out until I decided I was far enough away from them. I didn't want to go too far for fear of getting completely lost, so I slowed down. I kicked a stone to vent what little anger I still had built up inside of me... I was a strong and independent woman and didn't need to hide all the time!

"Hikari..." A voice said.

I turned sharply and screamed as the black figure rushed toward me.

_**Willis:**_

I watched Hikari go, smiling, happy that she would be safe at least for a little while longer, and turned to my digimon, holding my digivice at the ready. I couldn't believe how stupid I had been... taking a short cut through the trees! I knew the Dark Masters were here! This had been the worst action plan of my life... and to make up for it, I had to make sure Hikari was okay.

"Terrier Tornado!" Terriermon shouted as he turned into a small green twister and shot toward Puppetmon.

"Tiny Twister!" Lopmon shouted copying Terriermon and shooting toward Puppetmon as a small pink tornado.

"Double Typhoon!" They shouted together, shooting toward him once more.

"Is that all you've got?" Puppetmon laughed coldly as he turned toward me. "Aren't you going to make them digivolve?"

I scowled at him as I held my digivice tighter. He wanted them to? Was he just playing with us? Or was them digivolving going to help him in some way? Either way I didn't have a choice... they were going to die if they didn't digivolve.

"Ready guys?" I asked them.

"Yep!" Terriermon and Lopmon said as one.

I held my digivice up as it began to glow. "Digivolve!"

"**Lopmon digivolve to... Wendigomon!**" Lopmon glowed and transformed into her champion form.

"**Terriermon digivolve to... Gargomon!**" Terriermon followed Lopmon in her transformation and turned into a larger dog who just so happened to look a heck of a lot like a rabbit.

"Gargo Pellets!" Gargomon roared shooting bullets toward Puppetmon, who dodged and began shooting similar bullets from his hammer.

"Koko Crusher!" Wendigomon growled as a wave of energy shot from his mouth. Puppetmon planted his feet into the ground and stood his ground.

"Really? That's all?" Puppetmon laughed. "You can do better than that I'm sure!"

I bit my bottom lip and nodded. "Guys...?"

"You got it Willis!" Gargomon grinned, "**Gargomon digivolve to... Rapidmon!**"

"**Wendigomon digivolve to... Antylomon!**" Wendigomon roared, morphing into Antylomon, "How's this? Treasure Axe!" Antylomon raised her arm and a large golden axe appeared. She grabbed the hilt and threw it with full force toward Puppetmon who simply stepped aside and dodged it.

"Rapid Fire!" Rapidmon yelled out shooting toward Puppetmon who once again, dodged the attack.

I clenched my fists... this wasn't working—We weren't going to win!

And that's when it happened. Hikari's scream echoed around us and before I could even think about what to do I was running the way she had gone, away from my digimon.

"Hikari!" I yelled, rushing through the trees. I tripped over a root but didn't let that stop me, pulling myself to my feet again and running further. "Hikari! Are you okay?" I couldn't find her... she couldn't have gotten too far! There was not enough time for her to get away—and then I saw someone running away, and into the darkness of the trees. I looked the direction she had come and gasped at the sight of Hikari laying on the ground. I didn't have time to chase whoever it was—it wasn't important. The only thing that was important at that moment was Hikari.

I ran toward her and fell to my knees sliding to a stop next to her through the leaves that covered the ground. She was laying on her side, looking away from me. "Hikari...?" I said slowly putting my hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?" I turned her over and held her in my arms. There was blood on her head and her eyes where shut. "Hikari!" I gasped, "Wake up!"

Suddenly her eyes fluttered.

"Hikari!" I said quickly, "You're okay?"

She opened her eyes slowly and looked up at me. "Willis?" She asked trying to pull herself up. She winced and fell back into my arms. "What happened?"

"You... don't remember?" I asked her slowly, "I heard you scream and came to find you."

She smiled, "That's sweet of you." She said wrapping her arms around my neck and hugging me.

"I told you already..." I told her, returning the hug, "I can't imagine what life would be like if you were hurt... Hikari... I know now isn't the most ideal time to tell you this but... I think... I might be in love with you." My stomach twisted painfully as she pulled out of our hug to look at me. I had never felt that before... I'd never been nervous, but at that moment as she stared at me with her big brown eyes... I was nervous as to what she was about to say.

It turns out what she was going to say wasn't so bad... in fact it was nothing. She leaned in quickly and kissed me, wrapping her arms, once again, around my neck. I was shocked at first but kissed her back after the initial shock.

Slowly Hikari pulled out of the hug, her face was red as she looked away from me nervously. "I... my head hurts."

I laughed at her and hugged her. "We'll fix that." I promised her as I bit my bottom lip and helped her to her feet. "But first we have to get back to Rapidmon and Antylomon." She nodded and hurried back the way we had come, running wobbly, using trees for balance.

Before I followed her I couldn't resist myself as I punched the air excitedly and took a deep breath. I had heard that Daisuke had confessed his love to Hikari and she just ignored him for the most part... I had been scared she'd do the same to me—but... this was _way_ better than I had hoped!

I ran after her quickly and caught up easily, grabbing her hand and helping her along, back toward my digimon. As giant digimon they were easy enough to find, and as we hurried through the trees I saw that they were standing next to one another with Puppetmon nowhere to be seen. They both smiled at us before changing back into rookie forms and running toward us.

Lopmon leapt into Hikari's arms and smiled, "What happened?" She asked, "Are you okay?"

Hikari shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know... I think so." I looked over my shoulder as Terriermon climbed into my arms... Who had that been? A digimon? A human? Whoever it was... they had hurt Hikari, and I was going to get back at them for that... no matter who it was.

"Where did Puppetmon go?" I asked Terriermon.

"I dunno." He said as he snuggled up to me. "He just... left."

"Then let's go." I said simply. "We don't want him coming back, and we need to keep Hikari safe... for real this time." I smiled at her as she smiled back at me and reached out to take my hand. I took her hand as we started out, back toward the temple.

_**Rei:**_

My head was reeling. They couldn't be serious. Was there really another world out there? One made up entirely of digital data? It didn't seem right. It didn't seem believable.

But something in the back of my head told me that this wasn't true.

_Those Gazimon said they were digimon…digital monsters._

And they did look the part.

For that matter, so did the ghostly wizard sitting on the bed, and the not-quite-as-ghostly ghost in the corner that looked nervous about being trapped. I didn't understand why he didn't just fight to get himself free. He must have some sort of super power, like those Gazimon had, and those other monsters down in the street.

But maybe, just maybe, they were like humans. There were bad ones, there were good ones, they had emotions and fears and….

No. I was reading too far into this. I'd even called my mom telling her I was staying at a friend's house last night because I was too scared of those Gazimon to risk going across the hallway. I didn't want to risk my family either. I wanted to help Taichi. And that's why, when my mom threatened to call the police to get me, I told her I was a fully grown adult, capable of making my own decisions and told her that the police wouldn't be able to do a damn thing because of it. The look on Mr Ishida's face when I mentioned the police was hilarious, and Mrs Takenouchi looked at me disapprovingly. She didn't like that I was yelling at my mother. But she didn't understand just how suffocating my mother could be. My mom wasn't as kind as Mrs Takenouchi, not nearly as _loving_. Mr Ishida could mention Sora and the look of pure pride on her face showed me how much she loved her daughter, how much she respected her. My mom wasn't like that. My mom also wasn't as good at wielding a frying pan as Mrs Takenouchi was…

But back to the point. There was another world out there, that Taichi—my friend_Taichi_—had not only visited, but saved _three_ times. It was called the Digital World. I mean, Earth was at least interesting, and not quite as literal of a name as 'The Digital World'. Next they'd be telling me there was 'The Land of Dreams' and 'Nightmare Land'.

"Sora mentioned something about the Dark Ocean once," Mrs Takenouchi said, pulling me back into their confusing story. I mean seriously? The Dark Ocean. That was worse than Nightmare Land…but I got the feeling it probably meant the same thing.

"Oh yes," the ghost—I think Mr Ishida called him Bakemon—said with a raspy voice. "The Digital World and the Dark Ocean have already begun to merge. It was most pleasant for us digimon."

"I somehow don't believe that," I said dryly.

"Us…how shall I say…_darker_ digimon," he said giving me a grin full of sharp teeth. I instinctively moved my wheelchair back a few inches.

"I don't believe you're evil," the ghostly digimon on the bed said. What had he called himself…Wizardmon? "You simply cast yourself in a bad light."

"I'm on neither side," Bakemon allowed. "But I'm definitely not good."

"It's nice and all, that you're so friendly with each other," Mrs Takenouchi said. "But I want to know what is happening to my daughter."

There it was again, that pride. It was a far cry from my mom's you-were-in-an-accident-so-instead-of-making-you-feel-as-though-nothing's-changed-I'm-going-to-treat-you-like-you've-lost-your-intelligence-along-with-the-ability-to-use-your-legs attitude. I sighed. My mom sucked.

"I don't know nothing," Bakemon insisted. "I'm here now aren't I. Not in the Digital World. How am I supposed to know?"

"I…hadn't thought of that…" Mrs Takenouchi admitted.

"But you were 'sent here' you said," Mr Ishida insisted.

"Yeah, because the worlds are colliding. I'm not the only one," he said looking to Wizardmon.

"Don't look at me," Wizardmon said holding his hands in surrender. "I _died_ here way back in 1999. The digidestined have saved the Digital World three times since then."

"How come you're not an egg then," Bakemon asked, sounding not nearly as intelligent as I'd thought him to be.

"Because I _died_ here," Wizardmon said again. "Honestly, digimon these days…"

I snickered. "What do you know then?" I asked him.

"That when a digimon dies away from the Digital World their data doesn't get reformulated into an egg," he said.

"Not about that," I said before it registered. "Really? Digimon come from eggs?"

"Yes," he said. "If not that, what are you talking about?"

"What's going to happen to Taichi, what does he have to do? What is this puzzle you keep talking about? What'll happen to _us_ if the worlds combine?"

"That is a long list of questions," Wizardmon said. "And the answers aren't there for me to give. But I think that you will be fine, unless a rampaging digimon kills you."

"That's…comforting…" I said with wide eyes.

"But the kids could just drop dead?" Mr Ishida asked.

"Yes," Wizardmon said. "Hikari was close to doing just that…"

"Hi-Hikari?" I asked in horror. That was Taichi's little sister. He would be devastated if she dropped dead. And I would never get to meet her, the most important girl in Taichi's life.

"Right, well, I don't think I'm needed anymore," Bakemon said floating over to the door.

"Not so fast mister," Mrs Takenouchi said, blocking his exit. He slumped down and returned to his lonely little corner.

"I suppose we ought to tell the other parents?" Mr Ishida said reluctantly.

"That sounds good," Mrs Takenouchi said. "I'd want to know if I were them."

"I should try Natsuko again…" he said. That name rang a bell. _She_ was his ex-wife/potential new girlfriend. I couldn't even begin to mention how relieved I'd been that I hadn't walked in on the affair of Yamato's father with his girlfriend's mother… That would've been horrific.

Just then the phone rang.

"You think it's a suggestion that I was right?" Mr Ishida said sounding very disappointed that he'd actually have to give these parents this terrible news. "Maybe it's Natsuko…."

So he went to answer it.

_**Yoshie:**_

Susumu was a lifesaver. He carried Yuuko back down to the car, and we were able to get out of there quickly. Not a single digital creature was able to get to us. I was thrilled. I had to stay alive in order to help my son after all.

I just wished I knew _how_ to help him.

This time was different. I knew he was in trouble, he didn't tell me about it second hand after the fact list he did three years prior. It was a new experience for me. I couldn't even give him snacks to give him energy. I couldn't do anything.

But I wanted to. And I _would_ find a way eventually.

"Where to?" Susumu asked.

"My house," I said, suddenly struck by an idea.

"W-what? W-where am I?"

"Oh good, Yuuko, you're awake," I said pleasantly. "We're going to my house. I've just thought of a way to get the information we need."

"I thought we found out where they were?" Susumu asked. "We can't get there."

"The Digital World," Yuuko murmured. "I'd hoped that was a dream."

"Not quite," I said. "And we know that both places are in trouble. The kids only ever get sent there when that's the case. And we know that Odaiba is in chaos. My son would know what's wrong."

"Your son's in a different world," Yuuko pointed out. I winced, but handled the blatant way she said it fairly well.

"I realize," I said. "But he's always working on his computer. Though he'll have it with him, we still have an option. He keeps all of his files on the desktop computer Masami and I got him six years ago on his birthday. He even wrote a program that would allow him to send files wirelessly between the two computers."

"So we could message the kids?" Susumu asked sounding hopeful.

"I'm not sure," I said slowly. "But it _is_ a possibility."

"Then let's go!" Yuuko shouted.

It took us awhile to get there. There were a lot of streets that had been closed off—most likely due to digimon damages—but we did get there, all in one piece. I couldn't be more thrilled…unless, of course, my son and his friends were safe and back where I could see them. But you couldn't get everything you wished for.

"Where is this computer?" Susumu asked, as we rushed into my apartment. We couldn't have any digimon follow us in, so we shut the door and bolted it. I could only hope that Masami brought his keys and remembered to put the crow bar in the trunk, just in case. He hadn't called to say he was in trouble… He hadn't called to say he was safe either. I couldn't help but think Koushiro learned it from him.

"In his room. He usually keeps it locked, now that he's off at school. I think he likes the idea of it being his own private dorm. He put a fridge in there," I said, feeling a little upset about my little boy taking care of himself…but he'd never really wanted my help with anything.

"Then we'll be breaking in," Yuuko surmised. Susumo jiggled the handle, proving that it was, indeed locked, before he threw himself at the door. It took three tries, but on the third, it flew open. His room was neat and tidy. It was as if he hadn't been there in months, rather than a day. A really, really long day.

I was quick to turn his computer on. It loaded a lot faster than the computer in the office. I made a note to save up for a new one for Masami and myself, before I looked back at the screen…

"It wants a password," I said in a panic. _What_ would my son use as a password? I probably wouldn't get in.

"Right," Yuuko said, rubbing her hands together. "Taichi uses his birthday."

"That sounds too simple for Koushiro," I said, but I tried the numbers anyway. It didn't work.

"I think Hikari uses the date she first went to the Digital World, since it's different from the others', and they forget that a lot," Susumu muttered.

"August first, right?" I asked, though I was already inputting the new set of numbers.

It was also wrong.

"What about his girlfriend's name?" Yuuko asked.

"He doesn't have one," I said with a sigh. "Unless you count his computer. He hasn't named that yet, thank goodness. And he's had it for ten years now…"

"No girl…um…what about Tentomon?" Susumu asked. "That's his digimon, right?"

"Yes," I said, glancing at the picture Koushiro took of him and Tentomon on what I now knew was the last time he'd seen him. "Maybe…"

But I knew it was wrong. I checked it anyway, and was right. It was not the password. I tried to think back to what Koushiro told me when I'd forgotten my email's password.

"_You should write your password down. Keep it somewhere hidden, or disguise it so no one will know, but that way you'll have a failsafe if you can't remember it when I'm at school, that's what I do, though I'll never forget mine. Also, you're passwords are really eccentric, you should chose something more memorable. Something with letters and numbers. It's got to be something prodigious mom, unforgettable, or you'll be stuck without email until I can come home."_

"He's got it written out somewhere. He disguised it," I said suddenly, looking frantically around the room. He didn't have all that many places to hide it though. Just a bookshelf, his side-table, his closet and his desk drawers. He kept all notes and everything else on his laptop, and he didn't have a dresser anymore, he got rid of it in favour of his mini fridge and a bigger desk. He'd never had too many clothes to begin with. He just crammed them into the closet. "Susumu, you look in his closet, I don't think he'd really want a woman going through there. Yuuko, you take the desk. I'm going to check something."

Call it motherly instinct, coincidence or sheer dumb luck, but _something _told me the side-table was the right choice. I looked through the drawer, searching for any papers or numbers carved into the wood. Nothing. There were books stacked beside it, textbooks that didn't fit on his bookshelf—he had way too many. And then there was the picture of him and Tentomon. I picked up the photo, and turned the frame around in my hands. Struck by some urge, I removed the photograph from its home. On the back he'd written Prodigious! I smiled at his personal catchphrase. Under prodigious, he'd written 08 01. The anniversary of his first visit to the Digital World.

"This picture wasn't taken on August first though…" I realized. And it was a little odd that he'd write his catchphrase rather than their names.

"…_disguise it so no one will know…chose something more memorable…. Something with letters and numbers… something prodigious mom…."_

This was it!

"I've got it!" I shouted. I ran to the computer, accidentally breaking the frame as it fell to the floor in my haste. Yuuko dropped whatever filing folder she was looking through on the floor and it scattered, making a huge mess. Susumu had been tossing Koushiro's clothing out of the closet, but stopped when I'd made my announcement.

Koushiro was going to kill me. His door and lock were shattered, so was his picture frame. Papers and clothing were all about, and I was _hacking_ into his _computer_!

But it was for his own good, so he'd have to forgive me.

I hurriedly typed _Prodigious!0801_ into the text box, and thankfully, the computer accepted it. We let out a little cheer as the desktop—a plain turquoise colour…not even a trace of a girl or friends, just a boring colour, no hint of his real personality—chimed into view.

"Now where would he put the information we need…" I murmured, quickly scanning the file names. _Digimon, School, Photographs, Research, Works in Progress, Recent files "_—that's the one."

I clicked it, watching it open with bated breath. I had to say I was a little disappointed.

"He was scanning keys," I said in disbelief. "He's so against physical activities that he resorted to scanning _keys_ in his boredom?"

"Maybe they were important?" Yuuko asked, though she too sounded amused.

"What about that one," Susumu asked, pointing to a video file. "It's called 'The Worlds', it's got to have something."

I agreed and skipped over the other two key scans in favour of the video. It started with just a blank canvas, and then a green line appeared, followed by a pink line and a bleak grey line. A few other lines were tossed in, before they started swirling, turning into a blackish jumble.

"That was…_interesting_," Yuuko said slowly, as if terrified of offending me.

"It didn't make any sense!" I shouted. "Why can't he be less cryptic?"

"What is this a picture of?" Yuuko asked, pointing to a strange photograph.

"It looks like a physical _tear_ in the sky," Susumu murmured. "Did he edit this?"

"He doesn't believe in editing photographs," I said on instinct. "He says it's a waste of time. He learned how to, of course, because he wanted the knowledge of _how_, but he doesn't do it."

"Right," he said. "So where was this?"

I thought for a moment. They'd said something earlier… "Camp. It was at the campgrounds. And look, here are his scans for it. Hang on… this section here, these numbers, they match that key I think. Yes, look," I said pulling up the key scan as well. "He even highlighted it. It must've been important."

"He labeled it," Yuuko said. "Digital composition…. Did he find _the key_ to the Digital World?"

"That's sure what it looks like. What does this have to do with what's going on in Odaiba though?" Susumu said. He pulled up the second key scan. "Hmm… this one, he says it's just a normal key."

"What about the third?" I asked. Yuuko clicked on it, and we were shocked to see another set of numbers, completely different from either of the others. "What is this? The other one was declared an Earth metal, and the first digital data. This is…"

"Koushiro hasn't figured it out yet either," I said noting the question marks he inserted around certain groups of highlighted code.

"If they're in the Digital World," Yuuko started. "Which is, essentially _inside_ the computer, probably on the internet, we should be able to contact them…through email, right?"

"I don't know," I said, thinking it over. "But we can try."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Jou Kido is up next as narrator, and…yeah… that's it…


	26. Abandonment

**Y/N:** I wrote Kae Ichijouji here… ken's mommy… I forgot to put it up. I'm an idiot… RAWR I just ate my own ear. :D

**U/N:** sorry, I wasn't home and therefore couldn't remind my sister, who is an idiot ^^ to put it up. I wrote Jou here… I focused on the few digidestined (actually just two) that haven't been in the spotlight lately (besides Kurayami and Daisuke who will have their time, don't worry) uhm…. Yeah… the ending is rushed, but don't hate me because of it… and… enjoy—also review.

**Title:****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 26: Abandonment**

_**Jou:**_

I was growing impatient to say the very least. Everyone seemed to be ignoring Iori and I because... well I wasn't sure why. Perhaps they were just too scared of getting involved in what could turn to be a life or death situation... perhaps they just didn't want to deal with our sadness... Everyone was walking around the land of freaking babies laughing and playing as if we weren't pressed for time. But we were. We had until the sun went down to save my future wife and child! My family! I'd never really been part of a family before—my mother had died when I was younger and the only lesson I learned from my father was that I had to be a doctor... my brothers rarely spoke to me... until I met those around me now, I had no friends or family... and I had thought that they would be there for me no matter what... but apparently not. They weren't understanding... they weren't letting me go on my own which was something I had to do. I needed to save Momoe, and the others apparently didn't see that.

Taichi, Yamato, Gennai, Agumon and Gabumon were at least doing something that seemed like it was using our time to our advantage. They were all speaking with Elecmon who was leading them through the Village. Mimi was talking to Leormon who, although he was a great addition to our group, he just seemed to be another distraction. Mimi flashed a smile in my direction so I tried to smile back, but failed. I could tell she wanted to be there for me but there was something holding her back and I wasn't sure what it was... but I couldn't force her to be my friend... Miyako was sitting, leaning against a tree by herself watching Ken play with Wormmon and Otamamon near Sora who was watching Takeru with a heartbroken expression as he spoke with Patamon. Michael and Koushiro were discussing something, pointing every now and then toward Koushiro's laptop as their digimon played around them.

Only Iori understood... the two of us were standing near the entrance to Primary village, Upamon and Bukamon in our arms as Meiyomon stood next to Iori protectively, he was growing impatient with us as we watched the others helplessly.

I could understand how Taichi and some of the others were so calm... they had no connection to any of those who were taken, and they already had their digimon... but Mimi and Sora should have wanted to keep moving to find their digimon... If I was in their position I would certainly want to keep looking anyway. And then there was Miyako, she was unafraid of showing her emotions and how she was feeling, and if that was the case then why hadn't she exploded yet over the thought of her sister and niece or nephew? I decided I would have to talk to her at some point... she was after all going to be my sister soon. Perhaps she just matured though... I knew I had. I'd grown braver and wiser, and even Momoe had. Just three years ago she had been such a child... she was still carefree and bubbly—but much... more mature... perhaps with Miyako's maturing her emotions had been suppressed?

"I'm going to go explore." Meiyomon said finally, looking down at Iori. It was weird seeing that Meiyomon was suddenly the older brother in the situation. "Call me whenever we figure out what we're doing next." And then he was off, running toward the field of eggs.

"What exactly _are_ we doing next?" Upamon asked from Iori's arms.

"What are we doing right _now?_" Iori asked flatly. "We shouldn't be standing here doing nothing. Gennai wanted to come here to do what?"

"To find Daisuke and Kurayami I believe." I responded, jumping into their conversation.

"And are they here?" Iori asked, not looking toward me.

Bukamon shook his head. As he wriggled free from my arms and floated up and sat on my shoulder. "Nope!" I smiled at him, he was proud of his knowledge... it was cute.

"Exactly." Iori said flatly, "We should be leaving by now... but we aren't. We're still here... Natsuni and Noriko... and Momoe!" He added suddenly, looking toward me, but avoiding eye contact. I could see that there was something on his mind that he wasn't talking about. "And your baby! Which I'm still upset that you didn't tell me about by the way, Jou... They're all in danger! We need to get out of here and save them!"

"No one's ever died before..." Upamon said, trying to comfort Iori. "No humans anyway..."

"No one ever hurt themselves before either." Iori responded, "Every adventure is getting more and more dangerous... I'm not going to lie, I had my suspicions during my first trip that we couldn't get hurt—that we were immortal in the Digital World... but three years ago Mimi got a concussion! Miyako sprained her ankle—and we almost didn't win that battle... all because of Kurayami."

"Now now," I said quickly, "Let's not blame her, it isn't her fault... she was being controlled. Hikari trusts her so I do too. She seems nice now..."

"Have you seen her since she came back to the Digital World?" Iori asked, "How can we be sure she's not under the influence of Darkness again? That's her crest after all. I'm just saying—things keep getting more dangerous—Hikari got a big cut on her arm that somehow transferred to Gennai which no one will explain to me, Daisuke is gone, possibly dead, and Koushiro's shoulder was destroyed!"

"Iori..." Upamon tried, "Do you really think that we are in danger?"

"I do." He said flatly. "It feels different this time... When Hikari walked off... I wanted to go with her. I wanted to trust everyone else to save Natsuni and Noriko. I don't like that we're splitting up. The Dark Masters or whatever they're called... they seem pretty... evil... and Hikari and Willis can't fight them all on their own! What if they get hurt? I can't honestly say I'd ever be happy again if Hikari... died."

"She won't die." I said quickly, reaching out and patting Iori's shoulder, he looked toward me but quickly looked back to the ground. "Don't worry Iori... She'll be okay."

"How can you be sure?" Iori asked.

"There's something really odd about her." Bukamon said before I could. "She seems different than all of you other humans... she seems... odd."

"And that makes her immortal?" Iori snapped.

"Don't be rude Iori." Upamon scolded.

"You're right... I'm sorry..." He said with a sigh, "I just... I don't want anyone to get hurt!"

"Iori..." Upamon said smiling. "I haven't seen you in three years... but I've known you a long time... and I know there's something else that you're not telling us." Iori looked nervously to me and then back to Upamon. "I'm not asking you to tell me if you don't want to," Upamon clarified, "But you need to let me know what you want to do. You are a free thinking individual, and you're not a child anymore. If you want to go out there on your own, I'll tag along and together we can save this Natsuni girl."

"But Gennai said—" Iori tried.

"Don't worry about what Gennai wants. He's just a cranky old bat." Upamon laughed, "If you want to go I'll gladly help you."

Iori looked intently toward Upamon as he thought. I didn't want him to go... if he went there would be nothing holding me here rather than running through the Digital World in hopes of saving Momoe... but if that's what he wanted I supposed I could have just gone with him and together we could save them...

Iori looked to me and stared for a moment before looking back to Upamon and nodding.

"Yes." He said. "Let's go."

"Iori—" I said quickly as he made to run off, dropping Upamon in the dull grass around our feet. He looked over his shoulder at me. "I want to go with you."

He shook his head. "I need to go alone."

"What about Meiyomon?" I asked him, "He'll miss you—"

"Take care of him?" He asked me, turning around quickly, "I can't do it anymore... you take him." He then turned around again.

"Iori wait." I shot toward him. He stopped moving and looked down. "You told me once you consider me to be a big brother to you?" Iori nodded. "Then as your big brother I am in charge of you." He looked over his shoulder, making eye contact finally, "And I forbid you from leaving." Tears seemed to suddenly fill Iori's eyes as if he was letting out some blocked off emotion. He looked away trying to hide it.

"I just..." He shook his head and tried to run off. I grabbed his arm quickly and pulled him toward me.

"Iori..." I said calmly as he struggled to free himself from my grip. "Iori... it's okay! Iori!" Finally I dragged him into a hug where he wrapped his arms around me and started crying like I'd never seen him do before, and Iori crying wasn't something new to me.

It was a while before he said anything. I was aware that some of the others had noticed... Upamon and Bukamon were next to each other on the grass next to us looking up at us.

"I'm sorry Jou..." He said, finally pushing away and wiping his tears. "I just... Ken and Miyako might break up!" I didn't say anything yet, I was sure there was more to this crying fit. "They're like... my idols... don't tell them I said that—but they've got everything I've ever wanted—and they're going to break up... Ken's going to move away, Daisuke and Kurayami are missing, we have to leave the digital world again soon so I'll have to leave not only Upamon..." He trailed off, looking off into the distance, wiping his face again, "But my brother too. Gennai won't let him stay with us this time too... I can't leave everything I know! And... Hikari's picking the wrong guy! Takeru's in love with her—"

"Pretty sure they're just friends." I cut in.

He ignored me, "And that's who she's meant to be with! I just know it! And not to mention Natsuni and Noriko are both waiting for me to save them and I don't even know how, but I'm not trying! I'm sitting here craving an omelette and wondering why my best friend didn't tell me that he was expecting a baby!"

He was done... he ended it on me... letting him down. I bit my bottom lip and stared him in the eyes. "I'm sorry Iori... I should have told you about it..." I admitted, "But I was scared—I _am_ scared. Not just because Momoe and the baby are in the hands of one of the most evil digimon I've ever met... but because I'm not ready to be a dad! I thought I was—I thought I'd be a great new step in my life... the baby would just fill up the hole that my studies did—but... I'm not done school yet, and now I'm going to have a baby and I still have school for almost ten hours every day—I can't raise a baby like this!"

"But I don't see why you couldn't tell me..." Iori said, trying to ignore his other problems which I had to admit I couldn't help him with too much.

"I told Mimi—and only because she wasn't in the same country as me..." I told him slowly, "I didn't want anyone worrying, or putting too much effort into helping us along with the baby. I want to do this for real... just the two of us."

"Jou Kido!" Iori said in his lecture voice, "If someone helps you out that doesn't mean that you're not doing it for real! And I expect to babysit your child every now and then because I know I'd make a great dad. I love telling stories—I could tell your baby the story of how I met Momoe!"

"Why would you even—?" I tried.

"I honestly don't even know." He admitted, "I just... I want to help you."

"Then let me help you." I told him. "Stay here, stay with us, and we'll all help you save Natsuni and Noriko." He looked unsure at first, so I continued. "Ken and Miyako still love each other, and even if they break up because of this... we all know they're both going to end up happy, with each other or not."

"You can still visit Ken if he moves away!" Bukamon tried to help. I smiled at him.

"And Daisuke may be thick but he's going to come back. He's brave, and he's strong." Upamon added. "Him and the scary girl may be missing right now, but they're going to come back. Trust me Iori." Upmon bounced toward Iori and smiled, "And even if you have to say goodbye to me for a little while longer... don't worry. You came back to me this time... I have complete faith that you'll be back here to comfort me... to see me... to help me. And I'll keep Meiyomon safe for you until that day when we can all be a family again." Iori fell to his knees instantly and hugged Upamon with a smile on his face. "I love you Iori..."

"I love you too." Iori smiled. "Thank you... All of you..." He said, looking to Bukamon and then to me.

"Will you stay here?" I asked him.

He nodded and pulled himself to his feet. "Yes." He said simply.

I smiled at him as Bukamon soared up to rest on my shoulder once again. "Let's try and get this show on the road then, shall we?" I suggested. Iori smiled and nodded.

"You talk to Mimi, I'll go talk to the others and see what's going on." Iori said, immediately running off toward Taichi, Yamato, Gennai, Agumon, Gabumon and Elecmon.

I looked to Mimi who was now sitting next to Miyako hugging her. I figured that intruding on that conversation would be sort of... inappropriate, so I looked around. Takeru looked like he was ready to cry as he and Patamon spoke totally unaware of Sora, still eavesdropping on them. Koushiro and Michael were both narrow minded people who also wouldn't know what was going on anyway due to not paying attention to anything at all. I almost settled on Ken when I noticed Meiyomon standing by a strange hut made of straw and twigs.

"What's he lookin' at?" Bukamon asked me.

"No clue..." I admitted.

"Let's go look!" Bukamon said excitedly, "Let's go!" he leapt from my shoulder once more and soared across the ground toward the hut and Meiyomon.

As I drew nearer I saw that Meiyomon was looking through a small window on the hut that looked like it could have been a home for Elecmon at one point, but the closer I got, the more apparent it was that there were eggs inside and not any room for Elecmon to live.

"Meiyomon?" I asked him cautiously. "What's wrong?"

He looked over to me, a sad look filling his eyes. His mouth was covered so the only emotion I could see was in his eyes but there was still no mistaking it. He pointed to the hut and then crouched down and stepped into the door. I looked to Bukamon, feeling confused for a moment and then hurried inside. I wasn't really in the mood for anymore surprises or sadness, we had to get out of here and save Momoe...

I sat down next to him surrounded by large white digieggs. There wasn't much room to sit down so I grabbed one of the eggs and held it in my lap to make space. "What's this?" I asked him.

"My... brothers and sisters." He said flatly.

"What?" I asked bluntly. He had siblings? As I looked to the egg in my hand and saw that it had the crest of Kindness emblazoned on the other side in a strange magenta patterning I understood. I grabbed the nearest egg and spun it to see the crest of friendship. "They haven't hatched yet?" Meiyomon shook his head. "I wonder why..." I told him.

"I do not... know." He said slowly. We sat in silence for a moment as I set the eggs of Friendship and Kindness back down gently. "Jou... will you tell Iori that I am sorry?"

"For what?" I asked him.

"For leaving?" Meiyomon asked.

"What?" I gasped as Meiyomon snapped his fingers. Suddenly Meiyomon and twenty eggs up and disappeared leaving Bukamon and I alone in the small wooden shack. I was curious as to why there were so many eggs if there were only sixteen crests—but I knew it wasn't going to be answered without Meiyomon.

"Where'd he go?" Bukamon shouted out in surprise. "I forgot he could do that... I haven't seen him since that time I tried to kill him."

I laughed at Bukamon as I reached toward him and grabbed his fin and crawled out of the hut. I looked around, everyone was standing closer to one another than they had been and they were all watching me as I slowly moved toward them. At first I didn't notice anything wrong, but suddenly I noted that Ken was not in the group.

"What was that?" Iori asked as I came closer, Upamon was in his arms still, both of them had a confused and worried look in their eyes.

"Meiyomon... left." I told him simply.

"What?" He gasped, "Why? Where? What did he say?"

"He told me to say that he was sorry." I told him. I felt awful relaying this message to Iori after he just broke down.

"Is he... coming back?" Iori asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know." I told him. I wrapped my arms around him again, hugging him as he stared at me in horror. Why did everything have to be piling up on him? I felt so bad! I remembered earlier this week when the only thing that was bothering him was that a girl liked him... and now... now he had so much to deal with.

"I'm sorry..." I told him.

"We don't really have time for this." Gennai said loudly, "We should—" Mimi cut him off by elbowing him. She winked at me.

"Gennai has a point guys." Taichi said, speaking up. "We need to keep going. The sun is going to go down soon and we still have quite a lot to deal with before we leave."

"There's no way we'll do it in time." Michael said a little frustrated.

"Not with that attitude." Agumon said brightly.

"Agumon is right!" Betamon smiled, "Dragomon, Fanglongmon... they aren't too big a deal!"

"You wish..." Leormon chuckled.

"We still have to save Momoe..." Miyako said.

"And Noriko and Natsuni..." Koushiro added.

"We have to find Daisuke and Kurayami." Takeru said, piling to the list of things that needed to be done.

"And we have to go back and get Hikari, don't we?" Sora said, a worried look on her face. Takeru looked to Sora, his eyes filled with almost fear as he realized that Sora had listened to his conversation. His face turned bright red as he looked down at his feet in frustration.

"And Palmon, Biyomon, Hawkmon and Gatomon." Mimi added finally.

"Well what do we do first?" Patamon asked.

"I think we should focus on saving the world first, before we go saving everyone." Gabumon said slowly.

Iori and I turned toward him in anger, practically growling. "Not likely." We both said sharply.

"There is so much left to do!" Motimon cried out suddenly.

"Perhaps we should split up...?" Mimi suggested. "I know we all hate splitting up... but there's just too much to do in one day! We'll never get it done in time."

"Then I think the answer is simple." I said.

"We save Momoe and let the world deal with the enemies." Miyako said, voicing my opinion firmly.

"But Miyako... Jou—" Mimi tried, "We can't just leave this world in danger!"

"That's what Gennai wants us to do." Iori pointed out.

"Maybe Gennai is actually correct." Miyako said. "Maybe we should listen to him and get out of here."

"Right after we get Momoe of course." I added.

"Oh, of course." Miyako agreed.

"I don't think I can agree with you two." Mimi said flatly. She was giving me a look of apology, but also... anger? Perhaps... she wasn't happy with me, but that didn't matter. It didn't change my opinion at all. Sure I was once head over heels in love with Mimi, and I personally think we would have made an amazing couple, but she chose Koushiro and that helped me meet Momoe, the love of my life, and if she was for one second suggesting that we didn't put all effort into saving her... then perhaps she wasn't as good a friend as I thought.

"Well why not?" Miyako shot.

"Because no matter how important Momoe is, sometimes we have to think about others!" Mimi said loudly, "Momoe will be saved, but you can't just ignore the rest of the digital world."

Miyako stared at Mimi with utmost anger and frustration before turning and storming off.

"Miyako!" I cried out, "Wait up!" I turned toward her, but she was running into the trees already.

"Now look what you've done." Taichi sighed, "You'd better just give those goggles to me... I think it's for the better." Mimi punched Taichi in the arm as hard as she could and then tried to run after Miyako but Koushiro stopped her.

"I don't think she wants to see you right now." He told her.

"Since when do you know about the human mind?" Mimi asked him slowly.

"Just... let me?" He asked. Mimi nodded.

"Just let me hold onto your laptop?" She asked.

"Not a chance." He said flatly. He didn't notice the look of sadness creeping across her face. "I'll be back." And then he was off, running toward Miyako.

"Koushiro wait!" I called, "I'm coming too!"

"Jou!" I turned around in time to see Motimon leaping toward me. I caught him and smiled, "Alright. Come on Bukamon, let's go!" As I turned to follow Koushiro he was already disappeared into the trees that surrounded Primary Village. I ran after him quickly.

"Where do you think he's gone to?" Motimon asked.

"Probably after Miyako..." Bukamon stated.

"Well, obviously, I just meant—" Motimon was cut off by a loud explosion. I skidded to a stop and spun around as everyone began to run. There wasn't time to go back and help them... what had caused the explosion? There was a large cloud of smoke around the others... where was Ken? Was he okay? Had he gone off in search of Daisuke? Was he the reason Miyako had stormed off...? I gasped as a large black dragon head shot through the smoke with an open mouth, his sharp jagged teeth looking as ferocious as ever. As he stepped out I noticed the silver and black machine parts of his body... Machinedramon. Perfect timing. I was at a standstill for roughly ten seconds before I shot off through the trees to find and warn Koushiro and Miyako.

_**Kae:**_

I was in the kitchen, baking a cake with my newest cake pan. It would be in the shape of the summer sun. I hadn't had that much fun since I bought my label maker back in 2002. I'd labeled everything. I still pulled things out of the cupboard, only to find there was a label on it.

Ken was at camp, and though it worried me that he wasn't at home, I knew he was fine. I couldn't be overprotective of him forever. He wasn't going to leave me just because his brother had.

I shook my head to clear such morbid thoughts. I was making a cake for my husband's recent promotion. I didn't have time to go on a crying jag.

"Look at me," I hummed to myself. "Crying over the past. Ken's fine. Of course he's fine."

I would've been informed had anything happened.

Almost ominously, the phone started ringing.

"Oh dear," I gasped. I made my way to the phone, my slippers dragging along the floor. I was nervous, most definitely so.

"Hello, Ichijouji residence," I said.

"Ah, good. I got the right number. I'm calling about Ken," a man said.

My heart stopped. "What happened? Is he okay? If he's not so help me, I'll come over there!"

"Oh no, nothing like that," the man said. "Though you should know the answers to those questions yourself. No. I'm just calling about the sticky issue of payment. You see he was there when he was supposed to be, and we'd promised him the week's worth of payment, see, as he was going to be there, but unfortunately, with the weather phenomenon, we couldn't keep this week of camp running. We had to send everyone home."

"Alright," I said, not liking where this was going at all.

"Yes, so we had to also let our staff go home early," he continued.

"Early?" I squeaked. If they'd just been let go, then it would explain why Ken wasn't here.

"Yes, yesterday afternoon actually," he said.

No.

Where was Ken? Had he been taken against his will? Was he with a friend? Daisuke perhaps? Why hadn't he called me? Was he…hit by a car?

I couldn't cry yet. The man was still on the phone, rambling about how he was going to give the employees payment, but not for the full week, just a little something to thank them for their understanding the unexpected evacuation.

"Thank you," I said, interrupting his speech. "I'll get Ken to call you when he gets in. I just don't understand all of those numbers you were spouting there. He'll understand. He's my little smarty."

"Er…yes, of course," the man said. "Just tell him to call the boss. Alright?"

"Yes," I said. "Goodbye now."

I hung up the phone, and began to panic. I tried to slow my erratic heart, but it wasn't working. Only knowing where my son was could do that. I picked the phone up again, but my fingers hesitated over the buttons.

I had planned on calling the Motomiyas, Daisuke was Ken's best friend, and if he was with any of them, surely he'd be with him. But I remembered that Daisuke wasn't staying with his family—a matter I respectfully didn't press into—and could not for the life of me remember which friend he was staying with instead. Miyako would be working in her family's shop if she were home—her parents were adamant that she keep a steady income as she hadn't gone to college—so calling her was not an option at this time of day.

Who else was there with him? I know there were four of them. Ken, Daisuke, Miyako and… T…Takeru! Takeru Takaishi. I scrambled over to the phone book, and turned to the T section. There it was, Takaishi highlighted in yellow—Ken had highlighted all of his friends' numbers for my convenience, such a sweet boy. I called the house number, but got no answer, not even an answering machine. I thought that was it…but I noticed some of Ken's scrawling on the side of the page.

_Ms Takaishi's cell phone_.

I felt as though Christmas came early. I dialled the new numbers, feeling even more fretful with each passing ring.

"Hi, you've reached Natsuko's cell phone. If you're anyone other than Hiroaki, please leave a message."

"Well I'm not Hiroaki," I said as pleasantly as I could. It sounded a bit airy to me actually. "It's Kae Ichijouji. I was just calling to see if Ken was with Takeru, but it doesn't seem like it. He's missing actually. If you see him, could you tell him to call?"

Then I hung up. I felt depressed. I only remembered feeling like this when I was in the emergency room's waiting room, when Osamu had been hit by the car, and when Ken disappeared for those many months after I bought my label maker... The feeling of being completely useless, not knowing what to do or whether I should be doing anything, the _wait_that seemed endless and the way that each ticking of the clock pulled at my heartstrings just a little more…

Takeru's mother wasn't answering her cell phone, and she wasn't at home. It didn't mean that something terrible had happened to Ken or his friends. It could just mean that she was in a meeting. Yes. I could think positive.

And Takeru didn't _just_ have a mother. He had a father too. Now…if I could just remember his last name. It wasn't Takaishi, like Takeru. It was the same as Yamato, his brother…wasn't it? I snuck into Ken's room, feeling guilty as I did so as he was a very private person. I smiled at the picture of him and Miyako on his computer desk. They were just too cute. I was glad I helped get them together. I turned to the CD rack beside it, and ran my finger down them, looking for the Teenage Wolves… There! I pulled the CD out, and brought it with me to the kitchen, so I could see with the light. Ken kept his windows covered, and I didn't want to stay in there too long. Yutaka, Akira, Takashi…Yamato, Yamato Ishida.

I grabbed at the phone book and quickly located the phone number—it too was highlighted. Such a sweet boy—and dialled the numbers as quickly as I could.

"Hello," came the voice of a tired man. "This is Hiroaki."

"Mr Ishida?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes," he said.

"This is Kae Ichijouji, Ken's mother. I was just wondering if you knew where he was…?"

"About that," he said. "Look, it might be best if you come over here. Take a baseball bat or a frying pan or whatever, and be careful. It'll make more sense when you get here."

"Alright," I said cautiously, but I was already turning off the oven, and grabbing my purse. The nearest 'weapon' of choice was a frying pan, so that's what I took. I also got my car keys. "Where do you live?"

He told me, and I was out the door instantly. He knew where my Ken was, and I was going to do all I could to get those answers.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04:**What will happen now with Machinedramon advancing upon _Mimi_ and the others? Find out next time ;)


	27. No Regrets

**Y/N:** So my brother did my Y/N last time…apparently I ate my own ear…didn't know that happened… Anyway, I was Mimi this time, and got to delve into her mind and discover all of her insecurities this time around. I hope you enjoy it…:D Review please?

**U/N:** Uhm… This is Mimi's chapter…. Which you can see… down there… Where it says… "mimi"… I wrote… Hiroaki this time… and it's over half of a regular chapter's length… which is… actually kind of funny, and they're just getting longer o.O anyway… yeahhh I don't get to write next time either… which means it'll probably be late… by around…. A day and like three hours. Just my guess… anyway… yeah…

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 27: No Regrets**

_**Mimi:**_

"Just let me hold your laptop?"

I didn't know what compelled me to say it. Maybe it was the desperation, wanting to know that he trusted me, that he would come back to me. If I had his laptop, he'd have to come back. I knew I wasn't enough of an incentive on my own.

"Not a chance," Koushiro told me flatly.

I couldn't help feeling depressed as he said it. He didn't trust me to hold his laptop. He probably didn't trust me at all. Me or my decisions. Being the leader was too hard. Miyako had already stormed off…away from _me_. She'd pretty much declared herself in love with me when she was only twelve years old. And now I'd gone and screwed it all up. She hated me. I was her idol, and now, I felt like the enemy.

"I'll be back," he continued. It wasn't as if he'd looked at my face and known what I needed to hear him say. He didn't even sound like he was talking to me. It was just a reflex action.

I must've screwed up _really _badly.

I'd finally gotten his attention. I was thrilled. My mom hadn't thought I could do something like that. Find a guy without playing up my looks and dumbing down my mind. She was rather adamant about it. But then, she also wanted me to go into acting and was furious when I chose to cook instead.

I was a terrible actress. I just couldn't find it in me to pretend to be someone I'm not.

But I hadn't needed to do any of that. I could be as smart as I wanted with him, and it only made him like me, not push me away…but he and Sora were getting really close too though, so maybe it didn't mean anything to him. I'd noticed the way she'd always be by his side if I wasn't. They'd laugh and tell each other advice.

She'd helped him one of his equations.

He never let anyone help him with equations. Ever. It was a rule of his.

But again, Yamato wasn't worried about it, so I chose to ignore any petty feelings I felt when he and Sora shared these things he'd never share with anyone…even me.

I watched as he ran off into the woods, chasing after Miyako.

"Koushiro wait! I'm coming too!"

It was Jou. He hated me too, I could just tell. Both him and Miyako didn't understand. I didn't say we weren't going to save Momoe. I said the opposite really. I told them we would save her, but we had to think of the Digital World as well. They wanted to leave as soon as they got their hands on Momoe. And they could if they wanted, but _I_ wasn't going to. The Digital World needed us, and there was no way in hell I was abandoning it.

Just like I didn't abandon Jou when he first told me Momoe was pregnant. He'd been afraid I would think less of him, since they weren't married or anything. But I was thrilled for him, promised to do anything I could to help him through this. It was even the final push I needed to ignore my mom's ever growing persistence. He'd needed me, so I came.

But then Momoe got taken, and Iori's two friends—though apparently he thinks of one as a stalker—and the two boys latched to each other, being the only ones going through this. And now I didn't know what to say to Jou. I couldn't promise him Momoe and the baby would be alright. I couldn't tell him to relax and let Gennai lead the way, especially when I didn't believe in that myself. I didn't know how to help him. But he wasn't coming to me anyway.

He was my best friend. He was closer to me than even Sora. But he didn't need me anymore, and I felt a little hopeless. I was doing my best. I didn't have a fancy way with words, and this was the only decision I'd had to make as leader. Save just Momoe and Iori's girl friends, or save everyone and everything from certain destruction… I thought it made sense to want to save everything. It was what we'd always done in the past.

Watching Jou run after Koushiro was hard. Because he completed the blow. My potential love interest, my best friend and my biggest fan all gone at once because of something I said.

"Takeru," I said softly, not trusting my voice to not crack. "I think you ought to be leader now…"

"No," he said vehemently. "It doesn't matter if you're wearing the goggles or I am. It's the same decision. I'm not leaving the Digital World like this. Not a chance. You were right. I only hope we can get to Momoe soon enough for them to understand that."

"Thanks," I said, my eyes watering. It was just so sweet of him to boost my confidence like that.

I only sort of listened as Gennai decided that Leormon and Elecmon should stay at Primary Village, to help protect the babies. They agreed easily though, and we had to say our goodbyes. I was on autopilot as I did so. Takeru came up beside me and bumped into me playfully.

"He'll forgive you," he whispered. "They all will. Just give it time. Talk to him."

"That'll go well," I said with a very unladylike snort, thinking of the possibilities.

"_Jou, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, but we still need to save the Digital World…"_

"_You know, I hate you, I really hate you and never want to speak to you again, ever again. Also, that shade of pink clashes with your dress. You look terrible."_

Okay, so that wasn't a reaction I actually expected from him…

"_Jou, Momoe and the baby will be fine," I'd say. "We'll get them soon."_

"_I'm pretty sure the baby is allergic to being held captive."_

That sounded more like the Jou I knew…I just hoped he was the same way still. It had only been yesterday, but he was so different. I realized that Momoe and the baby's capture was taking its toll on him, but I couldn't help him if he wouldn't let me. No one could relate to him, but _I_ could _try_ to understand. Honest. If he'd let me.

"_I want to help Jou… What can I do?"_

"_I don't know… How about you focus on finding Momoe and—"_

But my newest scenario would have to wait. There was a loud clanging noise, as heavy metal feet came crashing down on the ground with each step a giant digimon was taking.

I turned away from Takeru, instantly searching for the cause of the noise. My eyes scanned the forest around me desperately, but I saw nothing…until I looked above the trees.

"Machinedramon!" Yamato said confirming my fear.

"Who?" Iori and Michael asked looking at the digimon, their eyes wide.

"He's a Dark Master," Sora told them. They nodded, and stepped closer to their digimon, not that those digimon, as they were, had any chance of beating him.

"MachinedramonX," Gennai corrected loudly. "One of Fanglongmon's creations."

"This isn't good," Taichi said holding his digivice out for Agumon. The device lit up, and Agumon faded in a blast of white light, emerging as Greymon.

Unfortunately, this caught Machinedramon's attention. He turned his metal head our way, his glowing, mechanical eyes trained on Greymon. He started coming towards us.

"Patamon, now!" Takeru shouted.

"Right," Patamon said, his usually bubbly voice now uncharacteristically serious. "**Patamon digivove to…Angemon!**"

"We've got to help Taichi. Hikari will kill us if we let anything happen to him," Takeru ordered, running across the small clearing we'd chosen to take our break in—we really should have stayed underneath the cover the trees provided. I'd have to take that issue up the next time they let me make a decision. If there was a next time. Machinedramon seemed inclined to think there shouldn't be one.

Oh, where was Palmon? I needed her. I was just a sitting duck without my digimon friend. And I missed her so much. I couldn't help but feel jealous of all of the others who had their digimon rushing to their defenses. They'd found their friends, they wouldn't be kicked out of the Digital World in less than twenty-four hours without seeing even the shortest glimpse of their digimon. Only Sora and Miyako could understand. And Miyako hated me…so I couldn't even talk to her about it.

I didn't even know if Palmon was safe. She could've been struck down by Puppetmon, or MetalSeadramon or Piedmon, while Machindramon took care of us. She could be out there dying alone, and I wouldn't even know it.

"Mimi, watch out," Yamato said, pulling me to the side, as Garurumon—who I hadn't even noticed digivolve—tore passed me. "Careful. Don't know what Jou or Koushiro would do to me if I let you get hurt."

"Cheer, probably," I said sadly.

"Don't worry," he said awkwardly patting me on the back. "Everything'll be fine if we just get rid of this guy."

"How? It's hardly like we've got any idea of how to beat him," I informed him.

"Betamon," Michael said from behind me, startling me. "I think we ought to join the fray."

"You too Upamon," Iori said. They both clutched their digivices close to them.

"**Upamon digivolve to… Armadillomon!**"

"**Betamon digivolve to… Seadramon!**"

"**Armadillomon digivolve to… Ankylomon!**"

The yellow and turquoise serpent, and the golden dinosaur joined Garurumon making a shield between Machindramon and the five—Michael, Yamato, Iori, Sora and I—of us. Takeru and Taichi were across the clearing with Gennai behind a smaller shield of their own.

But the shields didn't help in the long run. Machinedramon just stuck out his long, mechanical arms and with his claws touching the ground, he spun in a circle, his claws cutting into each of the five champion digimon without any resistance.

Armadillomon, Betamon and Gabumon weren't injured after their transformation, but they looked weak from the attack. I couldn't even see Agumon and Patamon to ensure their safety. Machinedramon was right in between us. He looked towards us slowly, before turning to the others.

"Interesting," he mused. "Gennai has called for his digidestined to get him out of trouble. Fanglongmon will be most pleased to hear this."

"He must've suspected we'd come," Sora whispered.

"What's he got planned?" Iori wondered.

"Ken," I said suddenly. I realized it made no sense to them, as it was a different topic entirely, but I just couldn't wait. It was important. "Where's Ken?"

Iori's eyes went wide, and he frantically searched around us for his good friend. "Maybe…maybe he went after Miyako?"

"Probably," Yamato assured him. "She'd want his support in this."

"Right," Sora and I agreed, though I didn't like lying. I thought I'd noticed him missing for the first time _before_ Miyako had gone off.

Iori looked unsure, and I couldn't blame him. "He'd better have…"

"We don't have time for this," I said before he could question my answer. Like I said, I wasn't a good actress. Machinedramon turned to face us, and the red glowing in his eyes narrowed. He'd found his target. "We have to run now."

"Run?" Sora asked. Clearly she was focused more on our missing friend than the giant hunk of metal that was advancing towards us.

"Yeah. Run," I said pointing to Machinedramon. Why couldn't I have Palmon with me? Rosemon was fantastic in a fight. She could just control the enemy, making it into her own little puppet. Better yet, Sora's Phoenixmon could take away all the evil in him and get him on our side. So where was Biyomon?

"I don't know," Sora cried out.

I hadn't realized I'd asked that aloud. Oops.

"Armadillomon," Iori shouted, running towards his partner. Yamato and Michael followed him, and gathered their digimon in their arms, before starting to run. I was so glad that Iori had grown, Armadillomon was a large rookie, but when Iori was small, he'd never have been able to carry him. And we wouldn't have been able to escape. There was no way we could've left him behind after all. We would have died.

"Taichi!" Sora shouted, looking over her shoulder as we attempted our escape.

"Takeru!" Yamato added. Gabumon was on his back, so he couldn't look back to check for his brother, and I could tell that was killing him.

"Nova Blast!"

Apparently Greymon was back in action!

"Taichi's alright," I announced. "He'll be watching Takeru."

"And they have Gennai," Michael added. "They're in good hands."

As much as I hated to admit it, it was probably true. He'd risked his life to save both Koushiro and I, and he'd taken Hikari's injury as his own. There didn't seem to be a limit to how far he'd go to protect us. It was generous of him, and it helped me accept that he couldn't be a total jerk _all_ of the time. I still didn't like him, but I supposed…I didn't _hate_ him either.

"Hikari better be alright," Iori said fiercely, as he raced ahead of me, carrying his large digimon on his back. "If we've been caught already, what makes you think she hasn't?"

"She'll be fine," I said trying to comfort him despite the stitch I already had in my side. Running was _not_ my forte. "Willis is with her." I noticed him wince, as if he didn't like that, but I passed it off as him getting tired of running.

It was my turn to wince as the stitch in my side grew worse. Sora passed me, then Yamato, followed quickly by Michael. I didn't have to turn around to know that Machinedramon was keeping up, no problem. He couldn't tell where we were exactly, but we weren't being all that quiet either.

"Hurry Mimi," Sora shouted, having noticed I wasn't beside her.

"I'm trying," I told her through heavy panting. I could feel the sweat on my face and shivered. I hated sweat almost as much as I hated running.

"Try harder," she said her voice full of emotion. "We aren't going to lose you."

I struggled to catch my breath without stopping, but found myself tripping over the smallest of branches in the forest. I was getting clumsy in my exhaustion.

"I'm going to die," I whimpered. I couldn't run anymore.

I would never know if Koushiro actually _liked_ me, liked me, or if he just thought of me as a friend. I'd never see Palmon ever again. I'd never see _Earth_ ever again. I wouldn't be able to be a top chef just to prove my mother wrong…

…my mother.

I would never get a chance to make up with her. Never hear her tell me how much she loved her little princess. Our last conversation was terrible, and that was the last thing she'd have to remember me by…

"_Mimi, I just don't understand why you have to go to Japan," she said again. She'd been saying the same thing since I told her of my decision._

"_I told you, I miss my friends," I said._

"_So visit them, but come back home," she pleaded._

"_Japan is home to me," I told her a little coldly. "You won't change my mind."_

"_You can be a chef here," she said. "I don't see why you can't just go into acting. There's less of a chance of you gaining weight that way."_

"_Are you trying to tell me that being a chef and moving to Japan will make me fat?" I asked a little affronted._

"_You'll be eating some of everything you make, and you won't have me to help you watch your figure. You'll have abandoned me," she said. She was doing it on purpose, trying to guilt me into staying, but she was doing a bad job at it. You don't try and manipulate Mimi Tachikawa._

"_I don't give a damn about your opinion mother," I told her angrily. "It's my life, and I don't care what _you_ want me to do with it. I have to do what will make _me_ happy."_

"_So your mother's happiness counts for nothing,"_ _she asked me._

"_Well, _your_ happiness doesn't," I said frostily, running to the limo Michael had sent ahead for me to take me to the airport where they were waiting for me._

The last thing I'd told her was that she wasn't my mother anymore. She must've thought I hated her. I didn't, but she wouldn't know that now.

I felt the tears flowing down my cheeks, blinding me, causing me to fall the next time I stumbled over a branch. I couldn't bring myself to stand up.

"Sora," Michael yelled in the distance ahead of me. "Take Betamon!"

I didn't try to understand what he was saying. Breathing hurt, crying hurt, and I was sitting on a really crooked stick. I heard footsteps coming closer. I couldn't see through my tears though. The footsteps weren't causing an earthquake, so I assumed they weren't Machinedramon.

"Mimi."

It was Michael. He'd come back for me! I _knew_ bringing him three years ago was a good idea, it allowed for him to be here this time.

"Take my hand," he said hurriedly. I reached out frantically, trying to distinguish it through my watery view. He grabbed my hand a tad roughly—though I knew certain death was one case where I'd accept it—and managed to fling me on his back. He certainly was strong, in a different way than his crest represented. He was able to carry me on his back, while running, though I could hear his breathing getting harsher.

"Thank you Michael," I said kissing his cheek. "You saved me."

"Think nothing of it," he said with a breathy laugh. "We've got to get to the others."

"Right," I said, glad I'd have the chance now to see them again. I'd live with no regrets.

_**Hiroaki:**_

I hung up the telephone slowly and hurried back to my bedroom where Toshiko was sitting on my bed facing Rei in her wheelchair. Wizardmon was leaning against the wall by the door, which I had to admit was a little weird, him being a ghost and all, I figured he'd just fall right through things... I wasn't in the mood to question him though as I pointed over my shoulder toward the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" Toshiko asked me.

"What do we do with that thing out there?" I asked.

"The ghost?" Toshiko questioned.

"Bakemon," Wizardmon corrected.

"Yeah that one." I nodded firmly before looking over my shoulder to see him struggling against the bindings. "Should we let him go? We have no more questions for him."

"I thought you said we could use him to our advantage..." Toshiko said slowly.

"And I thought we could." I admitted, "But it seems as if he won't be... compliant."

"Well let me have a go at it then?" Toshiko smiled, rolling her sleeves up. "I have an idea." She stood proudly and stalked out of the room. I turned to Wizardmon who was watching me with an upset look on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked him sharply. I didn't mean to snap but I was getting pretty tired...

"Did you love your sons?" He asked me.

"Of course." I said without a second thought. "Why do you ask?"

"Did you let them know that you loved them?" He pressed further.

I nodded slowly, "I suppose so..." I said, "Well I'm sure they... I'm sure the point was... They knew I did!" I admitted nervously. "Why does it matter?"

Wizardmon shook his head but said nothing.

"Why does it matter?" I asked again. Still he said nothing, "Okay fine... don't tell me—"

Rei gasped suddenly, desperate for air as she gripped the arms of her wheelchair tightly. She looked to me panicked, her eyes wide as she took a deep breath.

I spun around quickly and grabbed her arm but as my fingers wrapped around her, her arm seemed to vanish as if I were grabbing nothing more than a hologram or Wizardmon himself. "Rei...?" I said slowly.

"I see... A forest..." She said suddenly, her breathing was back to normal. I tried again to grab her arm but my fingers went right through her once again. "It's very beautiful—but it's dark... it's sad."

"What are you talking about Rei?" I asked her, but she seemed to ignore me. "Rei—" Suddenly Rei's body faded into the air until she was completely gone. "Rei!" I turned to Wizardmon accusingly, but the look on his face made me realize he didn't do it. "What... happened to her?"

"I... do not know." Wizardmon admitted slowly as he stepped toward Rei's now empty chair. "She... may have... gone."

"Gone?" I asked him quickly, "Gone where?"

"To the digital world..." Wizardmon said cautiously.

"Is... that safe?" I asked him, staring at the spot where Rei once sat.

Wizardmon shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't even know it was possible—" He stopped speaking as a figure began to fade back into solid form in Rei's chair. As if became clearer I saw that it was Rei for sure.

"What happened?" I asked her sharply. Rei smiled a little and she shook her head.

"I don't know..." She looked down toward her feet, still smiling. Suddenly the door to my bedroom opened and Toshiko stepped inside.

"Hiroaki?" Toshiko said slowly, "I've convinced the ghost to help us find our children. He's ready to talk." Toshiko casually brushed a hair out of her way. "Come talk to him with me." She turned and left the room without another word. I had to admit that I was impressed at how quickly she'd managed to convince him to help us out.

Toshiko seemed different though... she seemed much more... ready for war instead of tending to her flowers... it was weird, but not unwelcome. I glanced at Rei for a moment before following Toshiko, she seemed oddly happy about what had just happened to her.

As I walked toward the kitchen where Bakemon was still tied up Wizardmon floated through the blue painted walls and fell into stride next to me along the hardwood flooring. It was strange... but I wasn't surprised by him in the slightest, I figured I'd just gotten use to his presence.

As I walked through the wooden doorframe and into the kitchen my eyes fell upon a very angry looking Bakemon tied up with rope on my kitchen chair. He glared at me with his intense amber eyes before Toshiko spoke.

"Tell him." She said to Bakemon simply.

Bakemon gritted his teeth as he stared at Toshiko, his eyes filled with resentment and fury as he slowly looked toward me. "I can't help you find your children." He said flatly, "But I know someone who can."

I looked to Wizardmon who was trying to judge whether Bakemon was lying or not just by staring at him. I wasn't sure if I should believe him or not if Wizardmon didn't...

"Who?" Toshiko asked.

"It's a digimon who is running the portals." Bakemon said slowly.

"The portals?" I asked him quickly. "What are the portals."

Bakemon stared at me as if he were trying to pierce my soul, but did not respond, instead it was Wizardmon who spoke up. "There are portals all over the world aren't there?" He asked Bakemon, "Portals between the worlds... That's how the digimon are coming through...?"

Bakemon nodded.

"Who is running the portals then?" I asked, trying to take all this in quickly, "Where is he?"

"Wisemon..." Bakemon smirked almost wickedly. "I will lead you to him... If you set me free."

Toshiko let out a hollow laugh and then rounded back on Bakemon. "As if!" She roared, "If we set you free you'll just escape and not help us."

"We could use a leash." A voice behind us said. We all turned to see Rei sitting in her chair in the kitchen doorway staring toward Bakemon, "Like for dogs?"

"I don't have a dog... or a leash..." I told her.

"Well that rope that's tying him up would work." Rei said with a grin. "Here, let me..." She grabbed the wheels on her wheelchair and pushed forward with ease, stopping in front of Bakemon.

"I'm going to use the phone just one more time before we set out..." I told them slowly tearing my eyes away from the frustrated look on Bakemon's face. I hurried toward the phone and dialled Natsuko's number once more. I waited for only a few moments before the same message came on.

"Hi, you've reached Natsuko's cell phone. If you're anyone other than Hiroaki, please leave a message."

I sighed and clutched the phone tightly. Was she really just not home, or was she ignoring me? If so, that was particularly childish given the circumstances of what was going on. I stepped back into the kitchen and looked to Rei and Toshiko. Rei was smiling at the ghost on a string she had with her, and Toshiko was glaring toward Bakemon.

"Rei, do you have a cell phone?" I asked her. She nodded simply, "Call this number?" I asked showing her the number on the phone. She nodded and fumbled for her cell phone instantly, letting go of the rope that was tying up Bakemon. Toshiko grabbed it tightly as Bakemon tried to escape.

"Sorry!" Rei said quicky as she hurriedly dialled the number. She put her phone to her ear and waited a few moments. "It's just an answering machine—oh, she really doesn't want to talk to you... who is she?"

"Doesn't matter..." I said slowly as I heard a knock on the door. So she wasn't home... or maybe she was just avoiding the telephone altogether? "We have to make a quick stop at a friend's house before we go find Wisemon." I said aloud watching Toshiko step out of the room to answer the door, dragging Bakemon with her.

"Do you really think it wise?" Wizardmon asked, "To be taking time off of saving the world to see a friend?"

I nodded, "I do." I told him flatly. "So let's go." I turned to lead the way out of the kitchen when I came face to face with a familiar Mrs Ichijouji who was wearing a colander on her head and had cookie sheets attached together with straps over her shoulders to protect her back and front, and in her hand she had a large kitchen knife and a whisk.

"I'm here!" She said quickly, "Where's my son?"

"We're about to find out." I told her, turning toward the front door where Toshiko was waiting... but first we were going to see if Natsuko was okay... because if she wasn't—well someone was going to pay dearly for that.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** We find out where Ken is…** You really suck at these "next time" parts…** Nope… **You do actually…  
"Next time on Digimon Adventure 04: Ken is missing and the others are running from a particularly gruesome foe. Will they find him and warn him in time, or is Ken's time on the Digital Ocean up forever? Dun dun DUNNNN"**

**That's how you do it….**Whatever, my vague "summaries" allow us to change the plot sporatically between chapters if necessary…

**It shouldn't BE necessary sister… Ken's chapter is supposed to be written already. You said you'd have it done -_- but you didn't…**Because I was under the impression I only said I "Might" get it done…but apparently I promised…I must have some sort of memory issue…** you said, and I quote "I don't have to work tomorrow! I can do Mimi**_** and**_** Ken's chapters :D" SOoooo I win  
anyway… just… read the next chapter… I'm sure it will be good … aha **


	28. Conscience

**Y/N:** Wow…so I didn't want to write this chapter. I don't know why. It was just really hard for me to get through. Love Ken and all, don't like writing as him. It's so hard all the time. I had less internal musings this time around, a new thing for me, as there was so much to be crammed in here, and I wanted it to be done on time-ish, so Urazamay's U/N would be wrong…

**U/N:** Sooooo this chapter may or may not be done on time, my sister's being stupid about stuff again... but I wrote Mimi's mother here... we weren't sure which name was the father and which was the mother, so we chose Satoe for her mom, and Keisuke for her dad, if you know any different, tell us so we can edit that... uhm... Satoe's part is a few hours before-so sort of ... consider it a flashback... just to keep things moving smoothly so her plot can continue logically-it was because of poor and rushed planning in that section, i apologize. Anyway... i hope you enjoy this... i know i will when i read it because i'm super excited about the storylines we've got piled up for Daisuke, Ken, and Miyako, the three we sort of... left out last time... please review, because, if you remember, a demon will smite you, or lava will pour over you, or a monster will eat your first born child... please review...? please...?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 28: Conscience**

_**Ken:**_

I couldn't remember why I thought this was a good idea. Separating myself from the rest of the group at such a dire time? Not my best idea ever. It was like I didn't even have a say in it, like a voice was telling me that it was the correct path for me at that very moment. And it seemed like I woke from a trance three and a half minutes later when I was good and lost in the forest. I looked around trying to spot a sign that the others were nearby.

"Ken?" Wormmon asked worriedly.

"Yeah?" I said, still frantically searching.

"Why are we here?" he asked me.

"It's important…?" I said, though it sounded more like a question.

"Oh, it's a mystery!" Otamamon exclaimed. "I'm good at 'I spy', and that's a mystery, right?"

"Sure," I agreed, smiling at him, I loved his complete innocence. It made these situations easier. I could pretend nothing was wrong, I _had_ to pretend, or else I'd scare him. It made it easier to keep myself from getting scared too. It was like a barrier or something…

_Keep moving… You're not far now…_

Hmm…I supposed I'd keep moving. It couldn't hurt. I felt like I really needed to get there. Like it was life or death, and this was the only plausible option…

"Ken?" Wormmon asked startled as I dropped both him and Otamamon to the ground. They were slowing me down. I didn't have time for that.

"Well, that was rude," Otamamon commented.

I didn't deign myself to give him an answer. It wasn't necessary in the grand scheme of things.

I walked briskly, with purpose through the trees, leaving Primary Village behind me. The ground was still striped, as the Village's was, but the trees made the area too secluded for the eggs to appear. It didn't look as though Elecmon came anywhere near this place.

And that is precisely why I was surprised when I came across a solitary egg.

It was white, with pink markings scattered along it. It looked harmless…why was it that I was supposed to be here again?

_Further still. The egg is of no consequence. You are needed ahead_.

I cocked my head in confusion. When did my conscience start giving me orders? I shrugged and was set on continuing passed the egg, to where I was obviously supposed to go… Maybe the Digital World was tired of Gennai's evasiveness, and decided to take matters into its own hands?

But why would the Digital World give _me_ the instructions?

_Because you are a superior being…_

Oh, right, of course. That made perfect sense… But I wasn't a genius. I wasn't dumb, but I wasn't exceptional either. Willis or Koushiro would've been better options. Iori or Jou would as well, they were the one's facing the greatest potential for loss at the moment.

"Ken," Wormmon said. "Slow down! We can't keep up."

"Sorry," I said shaking the thoughts from my mind. I couldn't figure out where they'd come from in the first place.

"Can you carry me again?" Otamamon asked. "It's too far to walk. I don't like walking."

_Hurry. Must move faster._

"We have to keep moving," I said, not being able to resist the voice…but I couldn't help but take a second look at the egg sitting all alone on the ground.

"What do you suppose this is doing over here?" Wormmon asked me.

"How am I supposed to know?" I asked. It must have come out harsh, as Wormmon flinched away from me. I rubbed my temples. "Sorry Wormmon, I have this killer headache, and talking isn't helping me much."

"It's alright," he said kindly, making me feel guilty.

_Join the fight, do your duty._

"We should uh, keep moving," I said again, allowing the recent bout of instructions bounce around in my head. Clearly my conscience was a work in progress, as none of that made any sense. I was under the impression that a conscience was supposed to be straightforward and always right…

So what was mine trying to say?

"Ken?" Otamamon asked.

"Sorry, what?" I asked him shaking my head again. It was really starting to hurt badly.

"Are we just going to leave the egg?" he said, obviously not pleased to be repeating himself.

"Ye—no, no we won't," I said, changing my mind half-way through. It looked so small and innocent; I couldn't find it in myself to leave it unprotected. I wondered who it belonged to, why it was so far away, if it was as important as I seemed to think it could be…

_You must go now._

I scooped the egg into my arms, and looked at the two digimon. I couldn't possibly carry both of them as well.

_Now._

"Wormmon," I said, pulling out my digivice. "Digivolve."

"R-right," he said looking at me asking with his eyes for a reason.

"**Wormmon digivolve to… Stingmon!**"

"What do you need, Ken?" he asked me.

"Carry Otamamon," I said. "I don't want to break this egg."

"Okay…"

_Now!_

"We've got to go, now," I said, holding the egg close to me, and taking off quickly into the trees.

_Left._

"We've got to go more to the left," I said, correcting my path.

"I don't want Stingmon to carry me. Give him the egg, I want you to take me," Otamamon said.

_No._

"No," I said. "Stingmon can carry you. I need to keep the egg."

_Faster._

"What are we looking for?" Stingmon asked. "You seem to be in a trance, Ken. It's not how you usually are. You don't have any idea what you're doing, huh?"

"Something is telling me that I'm right," I told him honestly. He nodded. I figured he thought it was a gut instinct, that I wasn't being literal.

I wished I wasn't.

I was confused. Why was I even listening to this voice in my head? It couldn't be healthy… And I'd left Miyako behind without a word or a second thought. All because of this voice.

Perhaps Daisuke developed the same voice.

It would explain his disappearance. He was always watching over Hikari, and then he goes off without hesitation with the girl that tried to kill Hikari the last time we were here…

_Not long now..._

"We're almost there," I told Stingmon. He looked as if he were dying to ask how I knew, but thought better of it.

_Good._

Daisuke could be anywhere, I thought to myself. He was with Kurayami, who probably understood this newer version of the Digital World better than Gennai did, having been the "Queen" of the Dark Ocean or whatever for awhile, and having her run of the Digital World as well. In theory, if he was with her, he would probably be safe from all of the evil digimon roaming about…

Or she could have kidnapped him as LadyDevimon did Momoe and Iori's friends. Or she could have killed him right off the bat.

_Very likely…_

I couldn't think like that.

I couldn't let my conscience think like that.

Daisuke would be alive when I found him. Well, he'd be alive long enough for me to kill him for what he was putting us through. What was that idiot thinking? Yeah, he had a bit of a thing for Kurayami, but that didn't mean he had to abandon his friends to get anywhere with it. It wasn't a healthy relationship if it would result in his death…

_Almost there…_

CRACK!

I whipped my head to the right. "What was that?"

"You don't know?" Stingmon asked wryly.

"Very funny," I said sarcastically. My mind immediately went to Daemon. He _was_ trying to kill me—specifically me—after all. "Do you think it was a digimon?"

"I could sweep the area to be sure," he asked. "You could keep Otamamon if you want…"

"No," Otamamon shouted. "I want to help protect Ken too."

_Let them go._

"Good idea," I said absentmindedly. "Do that. Just…keep an eye out for Daemon? And don't go too far?"

"I won't," he said comfortingly. "The others are not far from here. They are almost directly west from our current location. If anything goes wrong, run that way, and I will fight off the threat. Alright?"

"Yeah, thanks," I said. I felt guilty, sending him off because of the voice in my head, but the voice was very adamant about it. I watched him give me another look, before darting away, out of view, looking for a potential threat. A threat that I was no longer certain even existed.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up; someone was watching me.

I turned to see Kurayami standing there calmly, her long black bangs covering most of her eyes, allowing only the smallest glimpse of the beady, black, irises that were trained on me. Her long, waist length hair was ratty, sticking out at the oddest angles, giving her the look of a deranged asylum-escapee.

"You came," she said in a dull voice. "I'm glad."

"Sure," I said awkwardly. "_You_ were calling me?"

"Not me," she said. "Someone powerful. Someone that wants to help."

"We can help too," a male voice said, drawing my eyes away from the terrifying sight that was Kurayami. My eyes widened when I saw him.

"Daisuke!" I shouted in surprise. He was different. His eyes were lifeless, though not as absolutely bone-chilling as Kurayami's were. His hair was wilders as well. I supposed they must've actually got some sleep last night, even if it was on the forest floor. There was no other reason for their hair to be such a mess. I was almost sure I saw leaves and twigs in hers.

"Ichijoujii," he said formally. I sighed. He must still be trying to be 'cool' for Kurayami. Trying to impress her, despite her obvious desire to not be impressed.

"You are close now," Kurayami said, pulling my attention away from Daisuke. "I'll give you twenty minutes at the most, after you get your friends and arrive."

"Where am I supposed to bring them?" I asked.

"Go east, until you reach a series rock faces. There will be a cave. Follow your instincts. You can't miss it," she said. Her voice was sending shivers down my spine, like nails on a chalkboard.

"And you?"

"We will meet you there," Daisuke said.

"We'll be leaving now," Kurayami told me. "You had best do the same."

I was still trying to wrap my head around the conversation I'd just had when they turned and silently disappeared into the trees.

"At least he's alive," I murmured to myself.

That was good.

_Is it?_

My eyes widened at my new conscience's latest comment. I couldn't really want something to happen to him deep down, could I?

No. I didn't. I wouldn't accept that.

"Stingmon!" I shouted. "Come here now. We're going to the others."

"What changed your mind?" Stingmon yelled back as he flew towards me.

"Doesn't matter," I said. "I've got the information we need. The information Gennai seems to want to keep from us."

"That's good," Otamamon said brightly.

"Where did you learn this, Ken?" Stingmon asked warily.

"Doesn't matter," I repeated. "Let's go."

He didn't seem pleased with me, but I couldn't be bothered at the moment. Not with my conscience's sadistic side to worry over. Stingmon wrapped his free arm around my waist, and I secured myself the best I could, while still keeping a firm grip on the egg I had found.

The further west we got, I could hear more and more battle sounds. There were explosions, digivolutions, screams and I could even hear Mimi crying. Something bad was happening, and I'd managed to abandon them all when they needed me.

"Ken," Stingmon said. "There's Sora and Iori."

I looked down and saw them standing with Yamato, Michael and Mimi, with Betamon, Gabumon and Armadillomon waiting with them.

"Hey guys, head east. I'll round up the others," I told them as Stingmon flew passed them. They were startled to say the least, but I was about ninety percent sure they were listening to me, as they started moving east…They could also be mad at me and just be moving to avoid me… That was pretty likely…

"We've got to find Miyako," I informed Stingmon.

"There's a human over there at least," Otamamon said happily, pointing to a section of bushes that were not doing a very good job at hiding the sneakers of whoever was behind it. We flew around the bush, and spotted Takeru, Taichi and Gennai. Agumon and Angemon were with them, and on guard duty. I was almost fried by Agumon when we came shooting around the bushes, taking them by surprise.

"The others are headed east," I told Gennai. "A little bit south from here too, I suppose. Meet up with them. I have to find Jou, Koushiro and Miyako…"

"They left before he attacked," Taichi told me. "They might be fine."

"But," Takeru said. "Machinedramon left too, so he could have found them. I'd stay close to the ground. He can't see you if you do. That way you'll have at least the forest to cover you."

"Thanks," I said. "Which way did he go?"

"That way," Taichi said, pointing further to the west. I only had twenty minutes to get everyone there; I had to deal with this quickly.

"I'll see you later," I told them. "Go meet up with the others."

"We can help," Taichi was saying.

"No," I said. "I'm just going in there and getting them out. We don't have time for this battle at the moment. I know where we have to go. We don't have long."

"What?" the two boys asked confused. I shook my head.

"I'll tell you later, with the others," I said. "Gennai, take this egg. It needs to be protected. And keep Otamamon safe."

"You stole an egg from Primary Village?" Takeru asked in surprise.

"Later," I said rolling my eyes. I didn't have time for this. "Just go."

This time I didn't wait for them to ask their inevitable next question. I motioned for Stingmon to shove Otamamon into Takeru's arms, as I did the same with the egg and Gennai. Then we sped off through the air, not looking back. I had to scan the area as we flew, as we couldn't count on an aerial view this time around, not when this _Machinedramon_ guy was around. I was wondering if he was one of those Dark Masters that Gennai had been talking about, when I noticed a rather large, mechanical foot in our path. I glanced up and prayed that he _wasn't_ a Dark Master. There was no way we could beat him…

Not that Kabuterrimon and Ikkakumon weren't trying.

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

"Electro Shocker!"

"This isn't working."

Miyako. I heard her, but I couldn't see her.

"Stingmon, drop me off near Miyako if you can, and then help distract this big guy here. Give us a minute at most, and then get yourself out of there. Take Kabuterimon and Ikkakumon with you, got it?"

"Of course Ken," Stingmon said, his bug eyes scanning the area much more effectively than my own could. "There." He set me down, and gestured in her direction. "I'll keep him busy."

"Thank you," I said. "Be careful."

"You be even more careful," he told me. I nodded, and ran off towards Miyako.

"We need to be stronger," Koushiro said.

No duh, I thought. But I wisely kept this to myself.

"We don't have time," Jou said. "I don't have the focus I need."

"Can we even help them, or would they need to do it on their own, as they now have the crests, rather than us…" Koushiro murmured.

"Who knows," I said, interrupting them. "All I know is that Stingmon is distracting this guy so we can escape. You could call off your digimon now, or let them help. Either way, we're leaving."

"Stingmon has a plan?" Koushiro asked.

"Yes," I told him. "He'll share it with them too."

"Then Kabuterimon'll stay," he said. "Stingmon will need help. Machinedramon was bad enough without the x-virus Gennai mentioned."

"Ikkakumon too," Jou said.

"Ken," Miyako said, her voice sounding watery. I looked into her eyes, still damp from tears, though I didn't know what she'd been crying about. I should've known. I should have been there… "You came back."

"I'll always come back for you," I said, kissing her cheek, and tugging on her hand. "We've only got a minute to get as far away from here as possible though. We have to get moving."

"Thanks Ken," Miyako said, twining her fingers with mine, before starting to run, causing her to drag me along like a sack of potatoes.

"The others are fine, by the way," I thought I'd mention. Jou and Koushiro seemed to relax a bit thanks to the news, so I felt better. Also, my terrible conscience hadn't spoken up in awhile—which I counted as lucky—so I had to rely on instincts, rather than my subconscious's uncanny geographic skills, meaning I barely had any idea.

We kept running, roughly in a western direction, trying to distance ourselves from the machine digimon. When we heard something coming from above us though, we panicked.

"Duck!" Miyako shouted. She was the only one to make it to the ground before the thing that was preparing to attack us arrived. I peeked over to see Stingmon carrying two rookie digimon.

"Jou!" Gomamon's voice shouted, as Stingmon dropped him into Jou's waiting arms.

"Tentomon!" Koushiro said happily, smiling fondly at his digimon.

"You, uh, didn't happen to see Hawkmon on your walk, did you?" Miyako asked nervously.

"If I had, you'd be the first to know," I said sympathetically. I was prepared to keep walking forward, but Stingmon grabbed my collar.

"They are to your right now," he said calmly. "Forty paces at the most."

"I have to check on Iori," Jou said, pushing his way to the front. I didn't know what it was about, but I didn't want to question him. He was having a hard time of things, and I didn't want to risk his somewhat good mood.

"Jou!" Iori shouted, as we came into the open.

"Miyako," Sora and Mimi cheered, running over to hug her. Miyako, oddly enough gave Mimi the cold shoulder. I'd have to ask Miyako what that was about later. I was sure I'd have to be on her side of the events.

"Koushiro," the girls continued, launching themselves towards him after Miyako, determined to pretend to not notice the cold greeting Miyako gave them.

"Ken," Takeru said, prompting me to complete my earlier promise.

"Right," I said, momentarily wondering where Meiyomon had disappeared to. I'd been tempted to ask, but Jou shook his head at me, motioning to Iori. I noticed the strain on the boy, and wisely skipped the only distraction I could think of. "I know where to go."

"That's not possible," Koushiro said. "Only Gennai has the slightest idea of what's going on."

"Sorry," I said. "But I know I'm right. It's to the east, until we come to a couple of rock faces. We've got ten minutes, maybe less. Let's get going."

"I do believe that _I_ happen to get to decide, as I'm wearing the goggles," Mimi said, pointing to her forehead.

"Right," I said "Are we going?"

"Of course," she said. "We've got to step up our game now. No regrets. We're doing as we want as if comes to us."

"That's uh, just about the opposite of what Gennai was suggesting," Taichi said with a nervous chuckle.

"It's that way," I said, pointing due east.

"Fanglongmon's cave is indeed in that direction," Gennai said, giving me a calculating look.

Fanglongmon's cave? But Kurayami and Daisuke were waiting there for us.

Then a chilling thought came to me as the others started out on their journey. I couldn't help but wonder if my conscience was really a conscience at all, or if it was Fanglongmon…

_**Satoe:**_

I slowly shifted the pot on the oven and sighed slightly to myself as the soup settled again. I heard Keisuke turn the page in the dry newspaper behind me. Besides the sound of the crinkling paper and the sizzling soup on the oven there was no sound to be heard. The house had been quiet ever since that traitor had left, moved out of the house and ignored me. The only thing she'd said to me since she left was "Hey Mom, this is my address if you have an apology to send to me, I'm living with Sora..." and it was through a letter. A letter that was sitting on the ledge above the fireplace. I hadn't shown Keisuke the letter because he'd expect me to apologize to her... but any daughter of mine would know that I would not be the first to apologize and I fully expected her to make the first move. She was, after all, the one who chose to be a fat citizen of Japan, friends with a group of misfit delinquents rather than being my only daughter.

"Apparently Wicked might be making a comeback on Broadway..." Keisuke said absentmindedly, flipping through the paper still.

Without a moment's hesitation I rolled my eyes and said, "I know dear, I work in the Broadway theatres. I'm fully aware of which musicals are in, and which are not." I stirred the soup slowly.

"You're right..." He said, "I'm sorry, I was just trying to make conversation."

"Mm..." I hummed quietly, not sure how to reply. I was sure he didn't want to talk once again of how much of a traitor my daughter was... that was all we'd talked about for weeks. Her leaving me, her not calling me, even her calling her friends and inviting them to come see her in Japan, but still not saying a word to me. I bet she was playing it up to her friends too, how awful I was... that girl she was living with, Sora probably hated me more than my own daughter... I remembered Sora... she was a good girl—but a bad influence on my—I almost thought her name. That name had been bleached and scrubbed out of my mind—she was no longer part of my life and I didn't want it any other way.

"How about we just turn the television on?" Keisuke suggested slowly, "For some background noise at the very least." He set his paper down and stood up, heading for the living room. It was a good idea... at least with the television playing the silence wouldn't be quite as awkward. I heard the news start up as Keisuke turned up the volume and returned to the kitchen.

"The weather will be bright and sunny all day long out there in New York City, so crank up the air conditioners—this week will be no exception to the scolding summer we've had so far." The weather man said. I glanced out the window absentmindedly and saw that he was right... it was sunny. I smiled... my daughter and I used to love the hot summers—the beach was just something we enjoyed doing.

"And now, sports!" The anchorwoman said.

"Ooh!" Keisuke said hurrying back into the other room, dropping his paper abruptly in the process. I shook my head with a small smile and paced across the tiled floor, my heels clicking annoyingly with every step. As I bent down to pick up the paper I heard a booming crack of thunder. I stood up quickly, the paper in my hand and turned to the window where rain was pouring down and slamming against the window roughly.

"That's sudden..." I said slowly, glancing down at the paper in my hand. The front page read 'Japan under attack'.

My heart fell instantly as I dropped the paper and grabbed the wall, staring out the window. I shook my head—it was probably fine... it would be okay...

Suddenly the rain became louder... but as I took a closer focus I noticed that it was no longer rain, and instead hail...

"News from Japan is next, take it away Rose," The anchorwoman said. I found myself running through the kitchen and sliding to a stop in front of the television, my heels scratching the floor loudly.

"Satoe, you're in the way." I heard Keisuke say distantly. I didn't move though... I couldn't move. I watched as the woman named Rose showed footage of the streets of Japan, they were destroyed... cars thrown out of the way, buildings smashed apart, and worse... there were monsters all over... big ones small ones. My heart began to twist as I clutched my chest and felt tears stinging my eyes. "Satoe, what is it?" Keisuke said, standing up looking around me. I looked to him and watched as his jaw seemed to drop as he stared at the screen. "Is this...?"

"Japan." I informed him slowly as the two of us stood awkwardly in front of the screen watching it as it showed a montage of images of the monsters destroying the city. Slowly my legs grew weaker, my heart was pounding and my head was spinning... Japan was... being attacked by those monsters again?

"Isn't that... Palmon? What's her name?" Keisuke asked.

I looked up quickly to the screen and gasped at the sight of a familiar digimon. "Tanemon!" I said quickly. Tanemon was my daughter's digimon... and if she was alone... then... so was... "We have to go to Japan. Right now." I said, gathering my strength and running toward the fireplace, grabbing the letter I had hidden from my husband. Keisuke didn't question me at all and instead hurried to put his shoes and jacket on. I grabbed my coat off of the hanger, not even caring to coordinate it with the rest of my outfit—there wasn't time.

I hurried back into the kitchen as an afterthought and shut the oven off before running to the front door and flinging myself out the door in front of my husband. I had to save her... I had to save my daughter...

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Kurayami and Daisuke have been spotted, and we'll get to delve into the mind of Kurayami herself next time, what are they doing, what is going on? You'll find out only if you read…


	29. The Offer

**Y/N:** Okay, so the internet was down last night, so I couldn't update it, but it's back now, and I've got the chapter for you! Yay! Anyway, I was a grandpa again, and I hope you enjoy it, it's a bit rushed, but I kind of like it. Gives a bit of perspective into Iori's character and home life in any case. Review if you can, thanks!

**U/N:** She says the internet was down but it wasn't **(it was, and he wasn't even here to know it, he was at his friend's house…)**, and it doesn't matter because her part of the chapter wasn't done anyway… but like… yeah I wrote it… enjoy it, I'm sorry it's late and stuff, review.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 29: The Offer**

_**Kurayami:**_

Where was I?

What had I just done?

I vaguely remembered seeing Daisuke's closest friend Ken... I remembered an egg, I remembered his partner and I remembered that purple digimon that lived at Daisuke's house... But as I looked around... I saw that they were not there any longer. I was surrounded by dark trees, standing tall in a forest.

The Digital World.

That was right... I had come here with Daisuke and the others by using my crest... I found my hands instantly reaching into my pocket to pull out my crest, but as I did so I pulled out something else as well, something I hadn't remembered putting in there. I was shocked to see that it was my digivice... how had I gotten that back? How long had I been out of it? Why was I out of it?

I knew the answer to that... and I knew that I had to get out of the Digital World, and fast. I stopped walking the direction I had mindlessly been heading and turned around to see Daisuke walk past me... but there was something wrong with him—something different. His eyes were shallow and lifeless...

"D-Daisuke?" I asked him slowly, not proud of the quiver of fear my voice let on, "Are you okay?" He looked to me quizzically before nodding and smiling, his eyes seemingly staring through me.

He reached out his hand and took mine gently. "Of course I am okay. I'm with you." He smiled to me again before turning and leading the way to wherever we were going.

What had happened to him? Had... had _He_ gotten to Daisuke too? Is that what was going on? Had _He_ managed to take over my thoughts again... control me? And somehow _He_ had managed to grab a hold of Daisuke as well, the most innocent person on the planet... besides Hikari of course...

There was no way I could allow _Him_ to control Daisuke like this... not the way he had done to me. I had to find a way to break Diasuke free of whatever hold, or spell he was under. Something that would break the curse of the most powerful dark being of all time...

But there was nothing that was coming to my mind. Hikari had done it for me... she had helped me see that choosing the darkness was not the right path—I needed Hikari... I needed light. Without both of them Daisuke would be stuck like this...

"Are _you_ okay?" He asked me suddenly, still half dragging me toward the place we were headed through the trees. The ground was covered in damp gray sand, and the sun was dancing through the small gaps in the leaves above our head. I didn't answer Daisuke at first, I didn't know what to say... I didn't know how I was feeling, I just knew I felt wrong... I felt off.

"No." I told him.

Suddenly I fell to the ground on my knees, my head in my hands, pain searing in my temples as I let out a mangled scream. Daisuke stood shocked, staring at me, so I looked away and closed my eyes as the pain began to spread from my temples to my whole head.

"Kurayami...?" He asked, he reached his hand out to touch me.

"Shut up." I snapped at him, the pain suddenly gone. "Hurry up. We have to get to the cave before the others do." I pulled myself to my feet and strode past him and continued on my way. Fanglongmon wanted us to be at his cave. Of course... he was no longer there. He had heard news of the Digidestined coming to him... and he had changed his action plans—but mine stayed the same. I still had only one goal in this world, and that was to obey Fanglongmon no matter what he wanted me to do. I heard Daisuke stumble to keep up with my brisk walk but didn't look back.

I wasn't sure how much longer it would take us to get to the cave, my memory must have been slipping... I couldn't remember why I had been on the ground...

No matter...

Daisuke had caught up to me. He was walking next to me silently. I could tell he wanted to go back... he wanted to see his digital partner, but the time to do that was not now. He would see his partner when the others came after us... and I knew they would. And when they did... I'd be there... waiting for them...

And so Daisuke and I walked in silence for a while. I knew we'd only be walking for a few more minutes before Ichijouji and the others caught up to us, and for some reason that bothered me. I was enjoying the time I was spending alone with Daisuke.

_Stop._

A simple word brought me to my senses. Fanglongmon was right. Enjoying time with a stupid boy such as Daisuke wasn't worth my time. I needed to focus on fulfilling Fanglongmon's needs...

Even if his goals were nearly impossible. I was starting to question him actually... if what he wanted was literally impossible, then how on earth did he expect me to pull it off? And if I couldn't do what he wanted, then he wouldn't succeed... and so joining him would be like joining a losing sports team just to watch yourself fail. I wasn't in the mood to fail again...

_You won't fail._

I wouldn't fail? Ha! I was no miracle worker—but Kennedy was! I could just use Kennedy! But Kennedy wasn't with the others...

_Have faith in yourself Kura..._

Right! I could do this! I was strong, independent and brilliant. If anyone could do this... I could. And I had Daisuke to help me... and although the seemed pretty useless a lot of the time, he was still company, and even Daisuke's company was better than no company at all.

I suddenly remembered Fanglongmon's words to me... in the last half hour that I had been in the Digital World last time he had told me that he was done with me—that I wasn't good enough for him... and that he was going to use my body for the time being... but... that wasn't the case anymore... what had changed his mind?

I waited for a moment for Fanglongmon's eerie voice to fill my head and respond to my question, but there was only silence.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and set off at a quicker pace toward my destination. Fanglongmon's cave. Daisuke began walking faster as well, without a word. We walked in silence through the trees until finally the large stone cave came into sight. It was a cliff really, a hollowed out cliff where Fanglongmon once lived. Thankfully he wasn't actually here, he may have been my master but I wasn't one to really... enjoy his presence.

"We beat them here." Daisuke smiled at me as we closed the distance between us and the cave.

"We left before them." I pointed out simply. "We were bound to be here first."

"You're right." He said, still smiling. "How long do you think we'll have to wait for them to show up?"

"Not long." I said simply. "Ichijouji will lead them here as soon as he gathers them all together."

"Ken's so dependable." Daisuke smiled. "He's my best friend you know. Well, him and Veemon. I like other people too, like you and Hikari... but I like you both differently. Hikari's like my sister, but I like you more like—"

"Help me up here?" I asked him. We had reached the Cliffside and I was requesting his help to climb onto a ledge by the cave entrance.

"Sure thing." He smiled at me again as he held his hands out for me to step on. I quickly pulled myself onto the ledge and sat down, leaning against the ledge and relaxing. Daisuke simply pulled himself up after me and sat next to me. "You're a fun person."

"Ha... ha." I said, rolling my eyes.

"I'm serious!" He insisted, "I like being around you."

"Oh..." I said, looking away from him, "Thank... you?" I wasn't sure exactly how to reply to him... no one had ever said that to me. I spent most of my time with my father in New York... he wasn't a very good conversationalist—I supposed that was where I got it from too though. Ever since mom left the two of us rarely spoke. Sometimes we'd talk about her, or he'd try to help me with my homework, but nothing more. And when I wasn't spending time with my dad, I was in Japan visiting my Grandfather who, although he was very nice and I loved him, he was a little... too talkative. I didn't want to know the story of how he met my deceased Grandmother... I mean, it was cute and romantic... but he'd always end up crying and I wasn't good at dealing with other's emotions...

I wasn't even good at dealing with my own.

I reached into the pocket of my cloak and pulled out my digivice once more. I stared at the small black device... why was this back with me? How had I managed to get this back without myself knowing? Was I really that absentminded?

_Focus Kura..._

I dropped my digivice onto the ledge next to me and nodded to the voice. I quickly scooped the digivice back up and put it in my pocket so I didn't forget it. Fanglongmon was right though. I needed to keep focused. I was soon going to have to do exactly what he wanted me to, and if I didn't do it right, then I would be punished severely and I wasn't sure I could survive if that happened...

_Here they are._

Fanglongmon was right. The moment he spoke those words I heard a familiar voice in the nearby trees.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" It was the Tachikawa girl.

"For the last time Mimi!" Ichijouji insisted, "You have to trust me. Even Gennai says I'm going the right way."

"And that's exactly why I'm questioning you!" Tachikawa insisted. "I don't really trust Gennai at all if you haven't noticed."

"I'm right here..." Gennai said. And he was right. There he was, with the others all around him, Ichijouji in the lead with Wormmon and Otamamon in his arms. His face lit up excitedly when he saw the cave, and he turned back to the others with a smile.

"We're here!" He shouted out. Tachikawa looked shocked to see that Gennai and Ichijouji had been right. Izumi, Takenouchi and Yagami were walking nearby with Tentomon and Agumon guarding them from either side. Takeru Takaishi and his brother were walking together, Patamon on the younger boy's head and Gabumon dragging his feet next to them. Inoue was right behind Gennai, clearly off in her own world as she followed along with everyone else as Kido and Hida followed behind her with their digimon.

"Finally!" Betamon roared, "I'm exhausted."

"I was carrying you until a couple minutes ago." The Washington boy said with a sigh.

Washington was in the back of the group with Betamon, but neither of them interested me, what was riding on top of Betamon was really the interesting sight. Demiveemon was smiling brightly as he enjoyed his ride. I looked to Daisuke who was staring toward the sky, watching the early stages of the sunset. He hadn't noticed his partner yet.

"So where is Fanglongmon?" Izumi asked.

"Yeah!" The well dressed boy agreed, I often had trouble remembering his name... Ishida? "I'm ready to kick some digi-butt!"

"He's keeping Momoe in _that_ cave?" Kido asked sharply, "That can't be healthy for the baby..."

"I'm not sure that the baby's health is on the top of his priority list Jou..." Gomamon told him slowly, "And... why didn't you tell me you were having a baby?"

"You were in a sealed off alternate dimension that I had no chance of ever returning to until Koushiro figured out the miracle and helped us all back into the world only to find out that it was in so much more danger than ever before." Kido explained.

"That's a good excuse." Inoue said suddenly, "And what's your excuse for me? Why didn't you tell me?"

"And me!" Iori added, "I thought we were friends..."

"Now isn't the time for this pointless argument." Gennai informed them. "If you care to notice, the sun is going down. You'll have to leave this world before even two hours are up. We need to find Daisuke and Kurayami and get you all out of here before the worlds combine and become one forever more."

"That sounds frightening..." Otamamon piped up.

"I agree, but if it means I'll get to see Ken for a longer time..." Wormmon added.

"Could you at least _try_ to make it sound less menacing?" the Takenouchi asked, "It's not like we're all going to die if that happens."

"You might." Gennai said flatly, "And I'm just stating facts Sora, I shall not downplay the seriousness of the situation."

"But if we all leave then we'll probably just drop dead like flies anyway. You said so yourself!" Takaishi added, "And apparently we're not allowed to be in a relationship, and we can't have kids so what's the point? Let's just let the worlds combine."

I couldn't help it, but I smiled...

"I never said you couldn't reproduce." Gennai said snidely, "I only said that it was unwise to do so with one another."

"Well if I can't have babies with a digidestined then what is the point?" Takaishi asked, raising his arms in defeat. Everyone stared at him strangely for a moment until he laughed nervously and said, "I'm joking..."

"Let's just hurry up and get into the cave." Agumon said.

"I want to show Fanglongmon who's boss!" Gabumon growled.

"But we need to focus on saving Natsuko, Noriko and Momoe!" Armadillomon shot quickly, "It's more important for you all to be safe."

"I agree!" Tachikawa said quickly only to receive a well crafted glare from the Inoue girl.

"We still have to get back to the Temple and save Hikari too!" Yagami said, "I don't want anything bad to happen to her... and besides, if we have to leave the Digital World again, we'll have to take her too. So let's hurry up and get this over with."

"Then let's go." Tentomon buzzed, soaring into the air. "We've got to end this quickly!"

"Yeah!" Patamon laughed, "Because I'm hungry and I don't want to be late for supper!" Takaishi laughed at his partner.

"Daisuke." A simple and soft voice said suddenly. Every one of them turned to look toward Demiveemon whose eyes were closed as he sat perched upon Betamon. He suddenly jumped to his feet and ran across the leaf covered ground. "Daisuke!" He said again pointing up to Daisuke and myself. Everyone turned to look to us, staring, shocked up toward us.

"Daisuke!" some of them called in surprise.

"Ah! There you are!" Ichijouji smiled at me. I smiled slyly back to him. I knew he'd make his way here. Fanglongmon may not have been nice, and he was not my favourite being ever, but he was certainly trustworthy. Ichijouji and I stared at each other for a moment.

"You knew they'd be here?" Inoue asked, stepping up to stand next to him, breaking our connection. She looked cautiously toward me and then, looked quickly back to Ichijouji.

"What? No!" He shook his head quickly. The others gave him a strange look as he led them toward us. Soon they were all standing around us and looking up at us.

"Shouldn't we worry more about defeating Fanglongmon?" Yagami asked.

"And saving the others?" Hida added.

"Fanglongmon is not here." I said to them, sliding forward and sitting at the edge of the ledge. Daisuke slid forward as well, sitting next to me. "Neither are any of his prisoners."

"Dammit!" Kido called out in anguish. "Where the hell is he? Where did he take Momoe?"

"Jou!" Tachikawa said quickly stepping toward him. "Listen to me! We are _going_ to find Momoe. We're going to go find her. Right now."

"Oh so _now_ you start caring." Inoue shot over her shoulder.

"Miyako—not now." Tachikawa growled. She then turned to look at me. "Where is he then? Where is Fanglongmon? Where is he keeping Momoe?"

"Mimi!" Takaishi warned, placing his hand on her shoulder, "She probably doesn't know... "

"Oh I know." I smiled at them.

"I was under the impression that you were through with him..." Takaishi said.

I shook my head. "I'm full of surprises."

_Stop talking._

His voice boomed through my head sharply and painfully. I nodded sharply hoping none of the others had noticed.

_Let the conversation unfold. You'll know when to continue._

"And you?" Demiveemon asked. "Daisuke? Where do you fit in here?"

"I am sitting by Kurayami's side. I thought that my role was evident." Daisuke said, a grin still on his face.

"So you're joining the dark side...?" Washington asked. "What purpose does that serve?"

"What the _hell_ Daisuke!" Yagami snapped, "What are you saying?"

"You're on the opposite side as... me?" Demiveemon asked.

"No!" Daisuke said quickly, "I'm just on a different side. You're supposed to come join me! We'd make a great addition to Fanglongmon's team!"

"No." Demiveemon said flatly.

"You're my partner, you're supposed to just follow me wherever I go!" Daisuke said sharply, jumping from the ledge and landing only a few feet in front of the group.

"I'm not a lost puppy Daisuke." Demiveemon said, leaping onto Kido's shoulder and jumping from shoulder to shoulder until he was resting on Ichijouji's shoulder just in front of Daisuke. "I have a mind of my own. I can tell the difference between right and wrong. I am right. And you are wrong."

"D-Demiveemon..." Daisuke said, "Just—just come." He reached toward Ichijouji's shoulder to grab his partner.

"No!" Ichijouji shot, slapping Daisuke's hand away, dropping both Otamamon and Wormmon in the process. I was ready to jump down and help Daisuke if he needed it. "He said no Daisuke."

Daisuke bit his bottom lip and balled his fists. "What does this mean?"

"It means he doesn't want to follow you in your quest for the King of Stupid!" Takaishi growled, stepping toward the front of the group.

Daisuke swung his fist toward Takaishi face. Takaishi jumped back quickly as Daisuke growled.

"I meant... Does this mean we aren't friends anymore?" Daisuke asked Demiveemon.

"I... don't know." Demiveemon admitted. "What it means is that you're a fool and that I refuse to return to your side as your partner until you set yourself on the right track."

Daisuke shook his head. "No! You can't!" He tried once more to grab toward Demiveemon.

"Dude!" Takaishi snapped, "He said no!" Takaishi stepped forward, in between Ken and Daisuke.

"You know what Takeru? Who asked you?" Daisuke said sharply. "You don't seem to understand no either. You keep chasing Hikari—but where is she now?"

Takeru lunged forward and tackled Daisuke to the ground.

_Don't you dare!_

I clenched my fists and bit my lip, watching Takaishi and Daisuke roll around, trying to best each other in their quarrel.

"Children!" Gennai's voice boomed as Yagami and Ishida rushed forward to pull the boys apart. After a short struggle the boys were being held tightly apart.

"Daisuke don't be a jerk!" Demiveemon shot.

"Takeru please don't fight!" Patamon pleaded, "We don't have time for this."

"We don't have _any _time." Gennai corrected. I noticed that Gennai was holding a simple egg in his arms. I wasn't sure what purpose that egg served but he didn't look overly pleased to be holding it. "If Fanglongmon isn't here then we need to get to his new hideout. Now."

"Why?" Kido asked, "All you care about getting us out of this digital world because you don't want the worlds to become one!"

"Well... yes." Gennai said flatly.

"You don't care about the safety of any of us!" Hida sighed, grabbing his head with his hands.

"Guys!" Takenouchi hissed, "This isn't the time to be arguing!"

"Sora's right." Izumi said shaking his head, "We're just getting worked up because we're all stressed out."

"Of course we're stressed out!" Yagami snapped, "This is getting ridiculous! We have like five hours to find and kill Fanglongmon, Dragomon and all those other evil digimon, get back to Hikari and Willis and get of this damn world! And it wouldn't hurt to find Biyomon, Gatomon, Palmon and Hawkmon before we have to leave just so the girls can say bye to their digimon before we get locked out again!"

"Taichi, there's no way we can get all of that done..." Ishida sighed, "We have to set our priorities straight."

"Well _what_ are our priorities?" Gomamon asked from Ishida's feet, "No one has any ideas so far!"

"Gomamon has a good point." Tentomon agreed, "Someone should spout out some sort of idea."

"Why doesn't she?" Ichijouji said. His head was facing the ground, his dark hair hanging. He was pointing directly at me. "She has an idea."

"How do you know that?" Inoue asked.

"I just do." Ichijouji said. "Kurayami... speak."

I smiled to myself and slid off of the ledge, landing smoothly. "I do indeed have an idea." I wasn't sure how to word this, but I was positive that this was the moment Fanglongmon wanted me to join in. "I have a question to ask you all." I paced toward Yagami who was holding Daisuke so he wouldn't continue his attack on the blonde one. I put my hand on Yagami's shoulder and he instantly released Daisuke. "But first I just... have to say. Michael, you are looking _radiant _today." I winked foolishly at him and then looked away. Why did I do that? I didn't... mean to... I cleared my throat and composed myself before I turned back to them and smiled. "Why are you doing what you're doing?"

"Because my pregnant girlfriend could die at any moment." Kido said before anyone had even registered my question.

"Why are you trying to keep the worlds from becoming one?" I found myself saying without planning it... he was doing it again. He was using my body to voice his words...

"Because that's the only safe plan." Gennai shot. "It's not safe for the worlds to become one. Or do you want every human to die?"

"Oh shut up." Fanglongmon said from my mouth. "No one cares what you have to say. You're uptight and annoying—and that ponytail down your back looks like a dirty unwashed snake. You're bossy and stupid and you need to just back off and let other people speak for a change."

I noticed that Tachikawa was trying not to smile.

"Now I shall ask again." I said, "Why do you want the worlds to remain apart?"

"B-Because Gennai said they would be better that way." Takaishi said. "We need to trust Gennai—otherwise..."

"Otherwise...?" I asked them.

"Otherwise you'll all die." Gennai snapped.

"But you said that we might die if we leave anyway." Izumi said slowly.

"We've been through this!" Gennai shot. "Either you risk all of your health and safety, or you risk the entire civilization of earth. Which is more important to you? If the worlds combine then everyone will die."

"Not if we're there to save them..." Yagami said slowly.

"And this world isn't safe anyway!" Agumon agreed.

"Not with the Dark Ocean invading us..." Gabumon added.

"This is crazy!" Gennai snapped, "You're all looking past the obvious answer. You all need to leave or everyone will die."

"Says who?" I asked him.

"Says me." Gennai said, stepping toward me.

"Look," I said, "I'm sick of your presence. Your breathe smells like my father's fish tacos and the look in your eyes is making me want to vomit. I'm going to go." The others looked around slowly to one another before I smiled again. "I'll be back in an hour. You can join me... or fight me. I won't bombard you with reasons to join me. But they are there."

Daisuke tried to take my hand but I shook him off.

"So you... want us to join... you?" Tachikawa asked.

"Yes." I said with a smile.

"You want us to decide whether to be evil or good?" She asked me, "Well this isn't a very hard decision. No one is joining you! We all know how this is going to go down. Kurayami—Daisuke! Just... come back. Stay with us."

"No." I shook my head, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go think about all the different places Fanglongmon could be hiding Momoe... Noriko... and Natsuni—oh wait. I know _exactly_ where he's hiding them. And I'll be heading there later tonight." I looked at Hida, and then Kido and then smiled and turned around. "Like I said... I'll be back in an hour."

And then I was gone, leading Daisuke into the darkness of the trees. I knew Daisuke was looking back, watching his partner, but I refused to look back. I needed to make sure Daisuke and I left the others around the entrance of the cave to think over my offer... I needed them to say yes... To make _Him_ happy...

_**Chikara:**_

I was at a loss of what to do with Yuck and Huh. They wanted so desperately to get home, yet I was unable to think of a single way in which I could assist them with that journey. I was not interested in technology. Mostly I avoided it. I used the telephone, but I did not even watch the television, preferring to spend time speaking with my family instead.

Iori would have known what to do though. I wished on more than one occasion that he was there with me, rather than off in some mysterious world that I knew nothing about.

And Yuck and Huh were getting on my nerves. They were not as sweet and innocent looking as Meiyo was, and they had rather nasally voices. They also complained a lot. I was actually thankful for my somewhat difficult hearing.

"Are we going to Hikari's house, huh?"

"Yeah, yuck, are we finding Queen Hikari or not?"

"She's out of our reach at the moment," I reminded them. "She's in your world, while you are in hers."

"That sucks, huh," Huh said.

"Yeah, yuck."

"Sure does," I said trying not to roll my eyes. "We are simply trying to find a way for you to go home, where you will meet up with her."

"Right, right, yuck," Yuck said. "We forgot."

"I know," I said through gritted teeth. Could they not savour the silence for a minute or two? Did they really feel that every moment needed to be filled with their incessant chatter? I longed for the quiet evenings I shared with young Iori—though he was not as young anymore. He was growing into a fine man, but I worried over him. He was scorned by his first attraction, and has pushed anything close to love as far away as he could. Even his mother could feel the strain. He'd closed himself off, and if he could just open himself up to the possibility, I was sure he could finally live up to his full potential.

He had been talking about Hikari a lot lately, now that I thought of it. Always taking his little brother to go and visit twice a week at the least. There was possibility there. Or perhaps the Ando girl. He spent plenty of time with her at the movie theatre. I know when his father was younger, he'd be excited about those kind of dates—because that's what it was, a movie date. Iori never took anyone else with him. His mother was furious over the subject, however, so I stopped teasing him about it. She didn't want to see her baby grow up, stop needing her. She didn't like his friends for taking him away from her either. But she kept it all behind a well placed mask, one that Iori was happily ignorant of.

This would come back to haunt her, I was sure. Iori was a strong boy, bound by honour, and the restraints she placed on him were not going to hold much longer.

"What's that, huh?"

"What is what?" I asked, having ignored the past three minutes of their conversation. The street was barely inhabited. Signs of digimon activity were everywhere, but they must have moved on from the area. There were a few people that would look at me—with my kendo stick strapped across my back—and then Yuck and Huh, before quickly fleeing the scene. They were so frightened.

I could hardly believe my grandson, so virtuous, was a part of this mess. Had been facing them for years. Was facing them now, or something much worse. And he had a digimon of his very own.

And my adopted grandson…he was _one of them_.

I shook the terrible thoughts from my mind. Meiyo was a brave—if slightly destructive—lad, and was a lot like my son was, with his vast imagination. He didn't cause this…

_Not this time_…

I had to rid the thoughts again, before turning to see just what it was that Huh was looking at, as he had no arms to point me in the right direction. I was shocked to find a digimon flying towards us. A digimon…or a woman? She had long silvery hair, and a black mask that covered half of her face. She was wearing…something rather scandalous for being in public as she was…that appeared to be made of leather, and her wings were, well, off-putting, tattered as they were.

"Old man," she said, coming to a stop beside me. I held my ground. Lesson one: being fearless is foolish but never allow your opponent to think you are scared. "You are the one called Hida, correct?"

"Chikara Hida," I agreed.

"Excellent. I'd hoped I'd found the right old man this time. I assumed, with the Numemon following you that I couldn't be wrong but…I wanted the pleasure of knowing I'd caught the right man," she said with a vicious grin. "It is so hard to find good workers these days. I've had to search all by my lonesome."

Her act was not working on me. I kept my guard up. Yuck and Huh were cowering behind my legs. This woman…no this_ digimon_—I could not afford the mix up—was frightening them. She, I assumed, was powerful, much more dangerous than any of these small digimon wreaking havoc about Odaiba.

"You were looking for me," I offered, trying to gather information.

"Oh, leverage works wonders, old man. The digidestined are destined to fall, but we need the right…bait to get them to us. You, will bring the Hida boy to us. You are his idol, are you not? Fanglongmon has seen it to be true, so there is no denying it. Why we need you, I haven't a clue, as we've already got the simpering girl and his friend. She's being unfortunately brave about the whole thing. It will make it all the more fun to kill her later."

"You have Miss Ando?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Oh, the brave one, yes. She's trying to protect Kido's hostage. We're well on our way to laying the most successful trap ever implemented," she said maliciously. "And you will do your job perfectly, I can see it. Poor little Hida, running in unawares to save his precious grandfather, can you just see it?"

"No."

"No?" she asked taken aback, as if she'd never thought I could refuse.

"No," I said, taking the kendo stick off of my back. "I will not come easily. You cannot use me against my grandson. Either of them."

"Oh? Does Hida have a brother? This will be excellent for our plan," she said, though it sounded like purring.

"Good luck taking Meiyo," I said. "He's got a thing about explosives."

"Human explosives will not derail me or my master on our quest," she shouted.

"Ah, but I said nothing about _human_ explosives," I said, running at her and taking a swing. She was caught off guard, and ducked her head down, closing her eyes. I disoriented her with the attack to the head, but it was Yuck and Huh that astounded me.

"Nume-Sludge!" they shouted together, throwing what appeared to be bright pink excrement at her. They kept throwing and throwing, despite her shrieks and demands for them to stop. She was covered from head to toe in pink…stuff.

"Let's go," I said, leading the two digimon down the stairway leading to the subway. We would board the soonest train, and take it to whatever stop that was not our current one, and we'd have to find a way to insure the other children's families' safety. If they were after me, they would be after Fumiko, Meiyo, Mr and Mrs Yagami, the band boy's family, anyone with a connection to any of the digidestined. And I knew for a fact that some of their mother's were searching frantically for them, running about the streets, fainting in panic.

Then again, they could already be taken…

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: **Next time we find out the choices of the digidestined. Will they choose the path of good, and obey Gennai, or will they follow Kurayami in her path toward Lord Fanglongmon? Arc three ends in darkness as the sun goes down. Will they get out of the digital world in time, or will they be too late, causing the worlds to become one. Find out next time!  
( i had no way of including the fact that it's Iori/Hikari this tiem ;) )


	30. The Union

**Y/N:** Wow. Okay, so I'm really, really sorry it's so late, but it was hard to write, and I didn't want to write parts of it, cause it was so awkward to think like Daisuke now and all of that…and to top it all off, I was working a lot, and my mom got into watching movies with me, so we had to watch a lot of movies over the last week—I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, it just put off writing…how can you write when you're explaining the plot of the movie to someone else? Unless I wanted Iori to suddenly need an Arc Reactor, I needed to separate the two activities… Sorry again, but I hope you like it, and review…otherwise it was a lot of wasted work…(it was super difficult to write Iori this time and awkward for Daisuke, so I feel pretty icky about the whole chapter…well…not so much the Hikari parts :P but the other stuff… yeah…)

**U/N:** Uhm... sorry this was late, but it's a REALLY big chapter, and it's REALLY important-but most of all, it was REALLY hard to write. I think we're going to try to get ahead now, so you shouldn't have to wait much... anyway, This was really hard, like i said, i'm sorry about the ending, it's not... good. sorry... GAH... just... read it... :S

Anyway, There are a few things in here that were exciting to say the least, so that's good aha :P

And so ends Arc 3... the only problem with that is Arc 4 is going to be very confusing. Just let us know if you want more information, like description of the scenery or if you're quite frankly just getting lost, let us know... I've edited the summaries over and over to make it as clear as possible but with everything going on and all the individual plots coming to a climax, it's going to be pretty hectic, so yeah, like i said, let us know if you're lost.

Also, I do believe that there are no more individual chapters, so no one has they're very own chapter any more for the rest of this story... because there are so many plots going on at once and we need to touch on them ALL, and not only that-there are a few that we're adding, (my favourite being the Miyako and Sora one... you'll find out in a few chapters... ;) ) But yeah... it's basically going to be really exciting and really crazy from now on, so i hope you're ready for that...

also review this chapter because it's really long and crazy and i'd like to know what you've all thought about it.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Choices**

**Chapter 30: The Union**

_**Yoshie:**_

As it turned out, emailing my son in another world was not as simple as Yuuko made it seem. No matter how many messages I typed out I always got the same result.

_Message could not be sent._

"What now?" Yuuko asked sounding heartbroken.

"We keep trying," I said, hell bent on getting through to Koushiro.

"It's not working!" she snapped at me. "I need to do something that will _actually _accomplish something. I'm not sitting around here when my children could be fighting or dying out there. You might be content with that, but I _can't_."

"My baby is out there too," I said fiercely, not allowing my tears to show. "And I know my son. He's out there clutching his laptop like a lifeline, and he'll be following Taichi around blindly, because he thinks the world of him. Taichi is his leader, no matter what. He's like an idol or something. Taichi and Koushiro will be together. And if Taichi is as protective of his sister as you say he is, then she'll be with my son too. And the only absolute connection between us and them is this damn computer. So I _will_ keep trying until my message gets through to him. It's the only way I can help him."

"Fine," she said looking a tad afraid. I was quick to apologize, I shouldn't have been scaring my allies. Susumu had fled to the kitchen when I'd started yelling. I felt so guilty, but I was right. There was so little in this mess that I understood, but I was right on this.

There were times I was sure Koushiro loved his laptop more than he loved me. So I was _sure_ he'd be carrying it with him.

_Koushiro, darling, it's me, mom. Are you okay? Tell me. I need to know. Where are you? Are Taichi and Hikari with you? Are they safe? Their mom and dad say hello. I love you baby. I need you to come home safe okay?_

I hit send again. I was losing the format and half of the words as I kept re-typing the message. Soon it would just say _'It's mom. Message me now.'_ It was getting rather tedious.

"Message could not be sent," I said angrily, ready to throttle the computer. But I held back, knowing I couldn't fix it if I did, and I really did need it. "Why can't it be sent?"

"Are you even on the Internet?" Yuuko asked.

"Yes," I said. "I double checked."

"Are you using his program correctly?" she asked.

"I'm just trying email," I told her. But she was right. His program would probably work better in this situation. "Let me try something."

I pulled open a word document, and typed a hasty message—a little more descriptive that '_It's mom. Message me now.'_ but not by much.

Then I hit the send button.

And I waited.

The hourglass was taunting me. The progress bar was at fifty percent…seventy-five…

And it stalled.

"No!" I shouted.

"What? It's not working either?" Yuuko asked. Susumu ran into the room, wondering what was attacking us. Not the best time in the world to be screaming I supposed, not with the world in chaos and digimon attacking at every corner. I apologized again.

"It's searching for his computer," I said, reading the pop-up. "It's having trouble finding it. Says it's not within range or something…It's still trying though. That's something…"

"You're right," Yuuko admitted. "But we've got to come up with something to deal with those rogue digimon. They can't keep attacking people like this."

"Right," I agreed. I pulled a note-pad and a pen from one of Koushiro's desk drawers, and was poised to take notes when the earth seemed to shift under us, jolting the house—and consequently us. I fell off of the desk chair, and looked to the window.

"What was that?" Susumu asked.

"I don't know," Yuuko said. "But whatever it was… Look."

She pointed to the computer screen.

"Transaction complete," I read aloud.

It worked.

_**Hikari:**_

"_Hey Hikari!" Daisuke had said brightly as he walked into my room the summer after Gennai had kicked us out of the digital world, knocking politely but not waiting for my response. He was wearing nothing more than goggles on his head and blue underwear. _

"_Clothes?" I asked simply as I pushed the heavy comforter off of me and forced myself into a sitting position._

"_Well we're like brother and sister now, right?" Daisuke asked with a grin. _

"_Yes..."_

"_So I can go around without clothes on no problem!" He smiled at me as he pulled my computer chair around so he could sit in it. _

"_No." I said, looking away. "Put clothes on."_

"_I would, but there's no time! You see, we have company."_

_Suddenly the door opened again and three people stepped through the door. Miyako's hair was pulled back into a ponytail as she stepped through the door in her green sundress. She smiled at me and waved, stepping aside so Ken could follow her inside. He was forcing a smile as Iori followed through awkwardly, he avoided eye contact with me I noticed._

_Ken and Miyako sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall across from my bed, but Iori stayed standing, staring at the floor._

"_Hi...?" I asked them slowly, looking at the clock on my bedside table. It was only eight in the morning. "What are you all doing here so early?"_

"_We thought we'd come say hi!" Miyako smiled, "We were in the neighbourhood so... do you want us to leave?"_

"_No!" I said quickly, "I love company! I don't really get it so often..."_

"_What are you talking about?" Daisuke asked, "You have me all the time!"_

"_Yes, and you're wonderful Daisuke." I told him with a smile, "I would prefer if you were wearing clothes..."_

_Suddenly Ken's phone rang. "Oh!" he said quickly, reaching down and pulling it out of his pocket, he answered it quickly. After a short time on the phone he hung it up and looked to us all, "I have to go..." He said slowly, jumping to his feet. "Dad's in the hospital..."_

"_What?" Miyako gasped, following him, "What happened?"_

"_He fell down the stairs and broke his arm." Ken said slowly, "I'm sorry Hikari—we'll be back, I swear." Ken said. "See you Daisuke,"_

"_Are we still going to the movies on Friday?" Daisuke shot._

"_Uh... yeah I think so..." Ken said as he slipped through the door, dragging Miyako along with him._

_Iori stayed against the wall, staring toward the ground. I watched him for a couple minutes before Daisuke stood up abruptly._

"_Well... this is... really boring. I'm going to go dance around in my room." He said as he left the room. "Just... call me if you need me—or ring a bell—blow a whistle—something." It hurt to even mention a whistle... I knew it was pathetic, but I felt... upset. I had given Gatomon my whistle... I missed her... so much..._

_Iori watched Daisuke go and then slowly turned his head toward me. "Hikari..." He said slowly, "I need to talk to you."_

"_Okay," I said smiling, patting the bed for him to come sit next to me. He did so quickly, taking a deep breath as the music from Daisuke's room began to fill my room loudly as well. "What's up?" I asked a little louder to be heard over the music._

"_I..." he looked up at me as if this were a really important thing for him to say. "Can I... protect you?"_

_I opened my mouth to respond but no sound came out... I wasn't sure exactly what that meant... "I... yes?" I tried._

"_I'm sorry... I'm not explaining this very well... but I just... please let me protect you?" He asked._

"_I would be honoured." I told him with a smile._

_He smiled back at me weakly, "Thanks... I'd better go now... Miyako is babysitting me..." he admitted, "Bye!"_

_And he was gone._

"So much for a reunion..." I muttered to myself, kicking the ground.

"What?" Willis, who was still walking next to me asked. Terriermon was on his shoulder, but Lopmon was walking next to me. We had escaped from the trees after Puppetmon had attacked us and disappeared. I was hoping that the reason he had left was that he had been scared off, but I knew somehow that wasn't the case. I thought that maybe Puppetmon hadn't found what he was looking for, so he didn't want to waste time... maybe he was looking for one of the others! I felt my heart begin to beat faster in a panic as I thought about Taichi and Takeru being attacked by Puppetmon. I tried to push that from my mind by looking for the temple.

The mountain was close now, so I knew we'd get to the temple soon enough... if only we remembered exactly _how_ to get there... We were walking along a dirt path with flowers around us. They were grey flowers—but still flowers. The trees were off in the distance and soon we'd be back under the covers of their leaves.

This day had gone by so quickly... my legs were _killing_ me and I was certainly ready to fall asleep at any moment, not having had any sleep for the past two days. I didn't want to sleep though. I didn't want to miss any of the time in the digital world! I wasn't sick here! Also if I slept at all I'd miss out on my chance to find Gatomon... I wasn't ready to give up on seeing her either.

I was mad at the others for making me come here... then again, it was really Willis' decision... but at the same time, it had been Taichi that had made him choose this... I didn't have any proof, but I just knew... I just knew that Taichi was behind it. And Takeru! He hadn't said anything about it! Did he really want me to go? Well I knew he didn't... he said he'd miss me... but... my time in the digital world had always been right next to Takeru... It felt weird not being her with him... also Gatomon of course.

But I had Willis still... I looked to him and smiled. He was waiting for me to respond, but I was thinking, so he could wait. I had kissed him. Literally my first kiss and it wasn't romantic, it wasn't spectacular, it wasn't... anything. But it was with Willis... and I loved him. Kind of. Maybe? Well I certainly implied that I did by kissing him...

"Today is August first." I said finally.

"So?" He said slowly, not seeing where I was going with this.

"The day that Taichi and the others first came to the digital world." I explained, "The first time any of us had been there. This is the day that we usually all come together for a reunion... no matter where or what we were doing. We hadn't done it lately, but since we actually came back this year I thought that we'd maybe at least stay together... but Daisuke and Kurayami are gone, and they practically forced me to leave."

"Hikari," Willis said, "The day isn't over, maybe you'll get your reunion after all?"

I looked to the sky which was covered in total darkness... I couldn't see the sun, but somehow I knew that the day was almost over.

"You're right..." I told Willis with a smile, "I'm sorry."

"Are we there yet?" Terriermon asked loudly, "My legs are tired..."

"Almost..." Willis sighed. "Wait a minute—you're not even walking! You're literally on my shoulder."

"But I bet that if I was walking my legs would be tired." Terriermon chuckled.

"Mine are." Lopmon agreed.

I reached down and picked Lopmon up and set her on my shoulder. "There you go." I told her with a smile.

"Your shoulders are more comfortable than Willis'..." Lopmon said with a smile.

"I've never had that compliment before." I laughed, "Thank you,"

And then there was silence as we continued walking. We reached the trees before long, and walked until the silence was becoming unbearably awkward. I tried to keep thinking about random things but all that kept coming back to my mind was my parents and how much I missed them. I knew it was stupid to miss them after just two days, but they'd been my best friends for the past three years... along with Daisuke, who I also really missed. I was also really worried about him... he and Kurayami just up and... vanished—I wasn't sure where they were, or if they were okay... I knew I'd just have to trust them...

"I miss my parents..." I said finally, trying hard not to think about Daisuke's possible death. "I know it's only been two days now... but for some reason I'm worried about them... I think something bad is going to happen."

"Like what?" Willis asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know..." I sighed as Lopmon climbed onto my head and curled up. "Do you miss your parents?"

"Not my mom." Willis laughed, "I love her—don't get me wrong, but I enjoy spending time away from her just as much. She's kind of a lunatic."

I laughed with him for a bit until he turned suddenly, so I hurried to follow him. He obviously remembered where we were going. "What about your dad?" I asked him.

"He's... dead." Willis said slowly.

"Oh!" I cried out suddenly, "I'm so sorry..." I stepped toward him and awkwardly took his hand. "How did it happen?"

Willis shrugged his shoulders, "No clue... I never met him." He admitted. "He died a long time ago apparently... Mom never told me how..."

"I'm so sorry!" I said suddenly throwing my arms around him. Accidently knocking both Lopmon and Terriermon to the ground. Willis hugged me back. He moved his arms around awkwardly trying to find a comfortable position to hug me. Finally we settled on just backing away from each other and picking up the fallen digimon. "So..." I said awkwardly, "The Temple?"

"The Temple!" Willis said suddenly, "It's this way." He pointed to the right and began walking immediately. I followed him quickly, but he was walking too fast for me to keep up so I stopped trying and decided I'd just talk to Lopmon, but when I tried I noticed that she was staring off into the distance, looking for something. Or someone... so I let her be.

Finally Willis came to a stop and put his finger to his lips pensively. "It's here somewhere..." he said quietly as I caught up to him.

"It's just behind one of the bushes—" I said grabbing the branches and leaves and pulling them away. "... Right?"

"Hm... yes I believe so." Willis said, joining me on my attempts to find the Temple. "It's just not easy to remember which one..."

"Does it have to be the right one?" Terriermon asked. "We could just push our way through..."

"That wouldn't—actually..." Willis said slowly, "That's a good point." He grabbed a handful of the branches and pushed it aside before stepping through. I hurried to follow him as he walked, but as I was stepping through the path he made in the bushes Willis released the branches and they snapped back toward me. "I think it's just around here..." Willis said, pressing forward.

I rolled my eyes and forced my way through the bushes and followed him.

"There!" Terriermon said happily, pointing down the hill. There it was, the Temple... I had to admit I was glad to see it again, glad to relax for a little... but I still wanted to keep going! I wanted to find Gatomon, and I wanted to go on an adventure instead of being forced to wait here...

"Come on!" Willis said, glancing over his shoulder at me smiling. I grinned back at him as the two of us set off down the hill toward the Temple. It didn't take long to get back to the shining bridge at the Temple's entrance. We walked slowly across the bridge taking in the beauty of the surrounding area before we came face to face with the man guarding the door.

"Names?" He asked us simply.

"We're the digidestined." Willis said slowly.

"Remember?" I asked.

"We were here like a few hours ago...?" Terriermon tried to help.

He shook his head.

"Gennai sent us." I said simply.

He bowed and motioned for the door. I remembered that they had had to pull the chains to open the door before but it was already mostly open, dented and burned from the battle the previous night.

Willis led the way into the Temple with Terriermon bouncing around his feet.

"Can we have a nap?" Terriermon asked happily.

"No," Willis laughed, "We're going to figure out what we can do to help the others while staying here."

I smiled suddenly. At least I knew now that Willis wasn't planning on being helpless like I had thought. We'd be doing something interesting at least... hopefully.

"Digidestined?" A voice asked suddenly. We both spun around to see a man with black hair. He looked to be no older than nineteen or twenty though. His eyes were a startling and familiar shade of oceaney blue. He was wearing a tunic similar to that of Gennai's people. "What are you doing here?"

"Gennai sent us back." Willis admitted. "He's kind of a jerk."

"Are you all here?" The man asked.

"No, he just sent me back because I'm too weak and pathetic to take care of myself." I said flatly, "And Willis came along."

"And me!" Terriermon smiled.

"Me too!" Lopmon chimed in; I noticed she was smiling, seemingly back to her old self.

"Well..." The man said, "So long as you're all here, why don't you follow me? I think this might interest you." And then he was off, without our actual agreement. I figured we'd had nothing better planned so we followed behind him quickly. He seemed to be one of the few people or digimon around the Temple that wasn't running around trying to clean everything up quickly.

He stopped in front of a building and spoke to a man who looked exactly like him. "It's time to put the barrier back up." He told him.

"What barrier?" Willis asked.

The man turned to him and said, "A protective barrier that only allows those who are invited inside to come. It's how we keep the temple a safe place."

"Why was it taken down?" Terriermon asked.

"Because in the battle last night Gennai suggested that we allow the demons inside the temple." He said, "Gennai thought that if we did so they would think they were winning and let off. And if Dragomon hadn't gotten a hold of a certain digidestined..." He looked toward me, his eyebrows raised, "Then Gennai's plan would have succeeded in saving us all."

"Sorry..." I said slowly.

"Do not be sorry," He said, "We'll get them in the end."

"So that's what you wanted us to see?" Lopmon asked.

The man laughed and shook his head, "No, that was just something I had to do, come this way..." and then he was off.

The man didn't look back once to check if we were following him, but we were, as close as we could, weaving between the digimon and the people until finally he broke free of the crowd, leading us to a set of stone stairs that led to the top of the outer Temple wall. He practically _flew_ up the stairs he was moving so quickly and gracefully. Lopmon and Terriermon jumped ahead of us, running after the man as Willis and I kept the pace of a quick walk.

As we were climbing the stairs after the man I noticed that he'd stopped walking and was instead looking out over the wall and staring at the sky.

Soon all five of us were standing in silence watching as the sun cast pinks and oranges across the sky, painting the clouds as the stars began to show in the darkening sky.

"Less than one hour now." The man said.

"For...?" Terriermon asked, hoping for more information.

"Less than one hour," The man repeated, "Until the sun is gone." There was a long moment of anticipation as we all waited for him to continue but he didn't. He expected us to know what that meant. And I did...

"That's when the Digital World, the Dark Ocean, And Earth will become one world, right?" I asked him. He nodded slowly. "That means we have to get out of here." I said flatly. Willis, Terriermon and Lopmon all looked to me shocked. I had no reason to want to leave, so I understood their confusion, but if the safety of all worlds was in my hands, then _yes_ I would do whatever it took to help.

"So we have to get the others..." Willis said. "We don't have enough time!"

"We will have enough time if you go get them." I told him quickly, placing my hand on his shoulder. "You go find them. Take Megagargomon—I'll keep Lopmon with me to keep safe, and then you come back with the others. We'll be out of here before the sun goes down."

"What about Momoe?" Willis asked.

"And Iori's friends..." Lopmon added.

"We'll have to hope they've got them already." I said slowly, "And if they haven't, then they could use your help I'm sure."

"You're right..." He said, taking my hand and kissing my forehead. "I'll be back... don't leave the Temple—I trust Lopmon, but a rookie won't do any good against those Dark Masters Gennai is so uptight and worried about." Willis smiled at me, and I couldn't help but smile back as Terriermon began to glow and change shape and size.

A large hand reached down and grabbed Willis who was lifted upward. "I love you..." He smiled down at me as Megagargomon and Willis shot off through the sky in the direction we had come.

"You didn't say it back..." Lopmon noted as she climbed up my body to rest on my shoulder. "Don't you love him back?"

I bit my lip and nodded briskly. "I think so... yes—yes! Yes I do."

"Then tell him." Lopmon said, "He'll understand... I think he knows already."

"W-what?" I asked her.

"He knows you don't love him." Lopmon said.

"I do though!" I insisted.

Lopmon smiled at me and patted my head. "If you say so." I nodded and ignored her, looking over to the man we had followed. "There's one more thing that has to be settled if we're going to make it out of here in time."

"What is that?" He asked me.

"I need help finding my friend's mother." I told him. "She was trapped here after she chose to stay in the Dark Ocean... do you know where I can find her?"

He nodded.

"R-really?" I hadn't actually expected him to say yes. "Where?"

"She is with the others. She is with the prisoners in Fanglongmon's own home." He told me. "She is trapped there."

"So if the others can get her out before the sun goes down..." I looked nervously to the sun and bit my lip. We were cutting this close, but I wasn't willing to let all these evil digimon roam through the Earth without at least trying to put up a good defense to stop them first. The only problem... was that even if the others could get back here with Momoe, Natsuni, Noriko, and Kurayami's mother we still didn't know how to get out of here... The door that had brought us in had supposedly closed—that was what I had heard from Koushiro and Sora... so did that mean we were trapped here anyway? Or maybe, now that the door was closed... we didn't actually have to worry at all! Maybe since Koushiro locked the door there was no way for Earth to fuse? Perhaps Gennai didn't account for that? But ... I knew that wasn't the case... and so the evil digimon would be able to attack my friends and family at will unless we could stop them... the only upside I could see to this was that I would at least get to have more time to search for Gatomon before we figured out a way to keep the worlds apart for good...

Suddenly I heard a loud high pitched piercing noise. I had no way to describe it other than 'familiar'.

I looked out over the forest and gasped at the sight of a small cloud of smoke and a tree falling over.

Suddenly memories flashed through my mind and I knew exactly what was out there. Before I had time to think of a better plan I was running back down the stone stairs with Lopmon clinging on for dear life... the sound out there was undoubtedly my old whistle that I had given to Gatomon right before I left the digital world again...

Gatomon was out there, and she was in trouble, and there was no way I was going to turn my back on her.

_**Iori:**_

Natsuni…

Kurayami knew where she was. I could hardly believe it. It was like a dream come true… but I had bad experiences with dreams coming true. And now Hikari was miles away with only Willis and two digimon that couldn't stop arguing to protect her, and I was faced with an ultimatum: protect Hikari or save Natsuni and Noriko and Momoe.

I _promised_ to do both.

I honour my promises.

Of course that left me in a daze, after Kurayami's final message. The message for me and Jou.

"I can't believe this," Miyako shouted. "How could he just do that? He was our leader."

"I guess he couldn't handle others taking control?" Takeru suggested.

"That's stupid," Taichi said. "He's got a stupid crush on that demon girl. Those don't work well. I know."

"I'm not a demon Taichi," Sora snapped.

"You were just now…" he said slowly.

"Shut up!" she hissed.

"Shutting up," he said, miming zipping his lips.

"I'm glad Hikari isn't here," Miyako said. "She'd be heartbroken. He was her new brother…"

"Fake brother," Taichi snapped, forgetting immediately that he wasn't to speak. "He's a terrible fake-brother at that. He couldn't even stay good, he had to join the forces of evil. Hikari must not have meant anything at all to him if he could even do that. She's literally the force of light. He's made himself her enemy. How could he do that to her?"

"Maybe Kurayami has him under some sort of spell?" Gomamaon suggested.

"Not likely," Jou said. "She's just as human as I am"—"According to Gennai that could be quite questionable," Koushiro added—"I think Fanglongmon has more to do with this than anything."

"But he was still willing," Sora added, still looking upset about Taichi's earlier accusations. "There had to be a part of him that wanted this. Something he could have preyed on, like how Dragomon works."

"But that's Dragomon," Mimi said. "He's not in charge here."

"They're working as a team," Gennai mentioned.

"See," Sora said. "Fanglonmon is using the same method Dragomon uses to lure people to the Dark Ocean. He finds an insecurity, doesn't matter how small, and he builds on it, makes it take over them. It's how he got me."

"And me," Yamato said grudgingly, he was not pleased that he'd been lured by the enemy in the past. I didn't want to pry by asking when it happened. I knew it had to be before I came around, and that was enough for me. I didn't want to dig in and open old wounds. "Gabumon's the only reason I ever got out."

"I went with Hikari and Ken once," Miyako said. "I don't know what he was building off of though."

"That doesn't matter," Koushiro said. "The fact of the matter is that we've been looking at the two enemies as just that, two separate enemies. We have to take into account that they _are_ working together, and chances are, we won't have everyone fighting against a single one, we'll be split into two groups. And we can't stay here and let Kurayami and her master worm their way into anyone else's subconscious. We're already spread out thin enough."

"Too true," Mimi said. "With Hikari and Willis back at the Temple, and Daisuke and Kurayami being evil, we're down four known digimon, and maybe even another if Kurayami's found a new digimon yet."

"And the Dark Masters," Agumon said. "We can't forget them. We'll all have to fight them too."

"The Digital World really needs to allow less chaos in at a time," Gomamon joked.

"Yes," Tentomon said, finding only fact in Gomamon's attempted humour. "We can only handle so much at once."

"We'll have to get going,"Patamon said, looking at the sky. "The sun has nearly set. We don't have time to wait, we've got to act."

"You're right," Mimi said dramatically. "And Kurayami gives me the creeps. We ought to leave before she gets back. Before she even _thinks_ of coming back."

"Go ahead," Ken said, finally looking away from the cave wall. He'd been in some sort of trance for awhile there. His lips were moving, as though he was quietly talking to himself. I hadn't bothered him, afraid he might actually be losing his mind or something. "I'm staying here."

"What?!" Miyako shouted, backed up by a variety of other voices. Wormmon seemed equally shocked, and voiced that protest with a loud "No!"

"Daisuke needs me. He's my best friend," Ken said reasonably…but his voice was colder than usual, devoid of the vibrancy he'd grown over years of friendship. "I'm going to help him."

"Daisuke doesn't need your help," DemiVeemon said.

"He does," Ken said. "And he needs yours as well."

"He can't have it," DemiVeemon said angrily.

"He's beyond help," Yamato said with a snort. "He's gone and fallen in love with the demon queen."

"Hear that," Taichi whispered to Sora. "She's your queen."

That earned him an elbow to the gut.

"Think reasonably Ken," Gabumon said. "He wants you to join Fanglongmon. He doesn't want you to help him become good again."

"I'm helping Daisuke. There's nothing you can say to change my mind," Ken said angrily, sending chills down my spine. The last I'd heard his speak like that he was dead set on taking over the Digital World as the Digimon Kaiser. "I'm _staying._"

"B-but K-ken," Miyako stammered. "You're not _joining_ them? Right, you're not?"

"I'm helping Daisuke," Ken said in that same voice. He was gone. Fanglongmon already had him in his grasp. He was tearing us apart from the inside. Literally.

"No," Miyako gasped. "You can't. You're one of us. You're good."

"I'm very good at what I do," he said with a smirk.

"You're not my Ken," she said with tears in her eyes. "My Ken wouldn't do this."

"Well, 'Your Ken' isn't here right now," Ken said. "Would you like me to take a message?"

"Yeah," she said pitifully. "Tell him unless he comes back right now, there's nothing left for us."

"Oh," he mocked. "As it turns out, he was better off without you. Anything else?"

She couldn't hold back the dam anymore, and the tears fell like rivers down her cheeks. She covered her face with her hands, her shoulders drooping, her body curling in on its self. Her perfect dream world was collapsing right in front of her, and I couldn't do anything. I was frozen, leaning against the cave wall.

Going to her would mean choosing a side.

I knew what was right, and what was wrong. But I still could not decide.

Hikari or Natsuni. That's what it boiled down to. Could I choose between the girl I promised to protect and the girl I swore I'd save? My long time friend or my _best_ friend.

But it wasn't only that. Noriko and Momoe were there as well. And now Daisuke. Could I just ignore all of them in favour of _one_ other individual, even if it was _Hikari_?

"Miyako," Mimi and Sora cried as her knees shook out from under her.

Hikari or Natsuni…

"Why?" she whimpered.

"He's been evil before," Taichi said, trying to comfort her and failing miserably. "It's only natural he'd be swayed."

"Taichi," Mimi hissed.

"What? I'm helping," he said. "He's got evil in his blood. Literally. He's bound to be bad at some point."

"If Ken's staying, we'd better get going," Mimi said, cutting over Taichi's idiotic ramblings. "We don't have any time to waste on this stupid argument."

"Should we?" Yamato asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked him with a guarded glare. There was a caution there though; she was worried he'd do the same to her that Ken did to Miyako.

"We could just wait…?" he said.

Yes. I could do that. It would make everything so much easier.

"No," Gennai said bluntly. "We can't. Time is running dangerously low."

"But it could help us find them, couldn't it?" Yamato argued.

"At this point," Jou said slowly, as if weighing his words. "I _think_ it's a trap to get us all together within reach, so he can exterminate us…"

"But there's always the chance that she's telling the truth," Michael of all people argued. "A genuine offer they want us to think is a trap. I'm staying with Ken. I'll see what's going on."

"You're just thrilled because Kurayami was flirting with you," Mimi yelled at him. "What about Tatum. What about her safety? You have to help us."

"No," he said going into a trance. "I don't. I have to stay here. I have to help where I'm actually needed, where I'm actually _wanted_. Where I'm liked and not ignored."

"Michael," Mimi said softly. "You don't really feel that way, do you?"

"My decision is made," he said firmly.

"I'll stay with you Michael," Betamon said. "Just like I promised."

"Wormmon, Otamamon?" came the snarky voice Ken had adopted.

"Y-yes, of course, Ken," Wormmon said. "Anything you want."

"No," Otamamon said slowly backing towards Miyako. "I'm gonna stay with the others. Being evil is too scary for me. I don't like scary stuff…"

"You wouldn't make a good tool anyway," Ken surmised, shrugging it off. I didn't like seeing him like this. It made me remember everything I vowed _never_ to forgive of him. It turned out I was right after all.

I knew forgiveness needed to be earned. I shouldn't have let Armadillomon talk me into anything else.

Stop. I couldn't let the darkness spread through me too. I had to think of Natsuni and Hikari. The two that needed me, were depending on me.

"Please Ken," Miyako pleaded. "Please."

"This is a waste of my time," he said. "You keep repeating the same argument expecting different results."

"You do too," Koushiro said. "Trying to take over the Digital World, turning evil when you're usually an okay kid, you've done it before. Did you know that doing the same thing again, waiting for different results is one definition for crazy?"

"Are you calling me insane?" Ken asked dangerously.

"I don't make accusations unfoundedly," Koushiro said with a shrug.

"Enough," Mimi shouted out. "We're leaving now. If anyone else wants to join the merry band of evil men, go ahead. But I'm trying to save the worlds as we know them. If you're coming with me, come. If you're staying, good luck. Because we'll beat you. Good always triumphs over evil. And with enough hope, and light, we'll do it again."

"Pretty words," Ken said. "I do hope you can back them up."

"Watch me," she growled before storming off into the woods.

Miyako looked at Ken again, then turned to the trees. She'd made her choice. She wasn't standing with the newly reincarnated Digimon Kaiser. Sora walked at her side, head held high, daring Yamato to stay behind. He didn't risk it though, and ran after her. Gennai and Taichi were next,followed closely by Agumon and Gabumon. Otamamon joined them. Koushiro sent another glare in Ken's direction before running to catch up with Mimi, leaving Tentomon to try and catch him.

"Takeru," I said quietly. But the cave made my voice echo loudly.

"Yeah?"

"You'll take care of Hikari, right?" I asked, praying he'd say yes.

"Always, why?" he asked looking at me warily.

"He's staying," Jou told him.

"What? Why?" Takeru asked looking lost.

"I have to try," I told him. "I can't keep wandering around, wondering when or if I'll find them. I have to start looking on my own."

"Following Kurayami isn't doing that," Jou pointed out.

"I don't know if I'm staying yet," I said. "Not for sure."

"Then just come with us," Takeru said. "It'll be fine."

"You can't promise that," I told him. "And I can't break _my_ promises. I have to keep Hikari safe—"

"You can't do that when you're with the bad guys!" Takeru shouted.

"But I also have to save Natsuni," I said. "I promised her I'd rescue her, when she promised to take care of Momoe for Jou. She's keeping hers, I just know it. I can't break mine."

"Mimi's leading us to find them now though," he tried.

"Mimi doesn't know where to look any better than I do," I said. "I'm not going with you."

"We're not going to change your mind?" Jou asked.

"You can't, no," I said.

"Then good luck," he said. "But Mimi's right. If you join the bad guys, you can be sure we won't hold back."

"I wouldn't want you to," I said, my sense of honour shining through. I couldn't stand the idea of good being beaten. But I couldn't play by Gennai's rules anymore. He wasn't getting us anywhere. He was just stalling us, waiting until he could send us away without question. And that time was getting close.

"We'll uh, see you later then," Jou said. He and Takeru wandered over to the trees, where Gomamon and Patamon were waiting for them. They both glanced back, only to wave, before disappearing from sight.

"Iori?" Armadillomon said, finally approaching me for the conversation I knew I would continue to put off.

"I just have to think right now, okay?" I said.

He nodded grudgingly, and I moved back to the cave wall. I sat with my back against it, intending on letting my thoughts rage a war within my mind. But that wasn't what happened. The moment I leaned back, started to relax my muscles—as was customary during meditation—my exhaustion finally caught up to me, and sleep took me away.

_**Hikari:**_

I ran through the streets of the temple as fast as I could, passing all the digimon and people who were working as hard as they could to get the temple back into perfect shape. I looked over my shoulder briefly after passing an Ogremon who was confused to see me running around.

Suddenly a small explosion occurred just past the walls of the Temple and my mind was brought back to a year prior...

"_What if I just BLOW up whatever is inside of you making you sick?" Meiyomon suggested with a wild grin._

"_Bad idea." Iori said simply, shutting down his brother's idea immediately. _

"_It's worth a try?" Meiyomon pleaded._

"_Nope." Iori said flatly._

"_Oh fine..." Meiyomon sighed._

_Willis was over that day I remembered... he was sitting at the end of my bed, Iori was on the computer chair and Meiyomon was sitting next to me on the bed. Daisuke had been out with his noodle cart, it had been one of his first days out there, I remembered because I had sent Willis to go buy us some noodles to start him off. Apparently he hadn't needed it as there was a large line up even then. _

"_I didn't think the two of you were that close." Willis said motioning to Iori and I finally. "But Iori seems to be here every day..."_

"_Is that a problem?" Iori asked flatly. I could see he was hurt, but I also knew Willis hadn't meant it that way._

"_No—no!" Willis insisted, "I just... is there a reason you're here?"_

"_He loves her." Meiyomon smiled. _

_Iori laughed, without blushing, which relieved me. I had thought for a moment that Meiyomon was right, and I really didn't need another boy to be in love with me... that was when I realized I had been teasing both of them. Daisuke and Willis both liked me a lot... I could tell..._

"_I just want to protect her." Iori said finally._

"_From what?" Willis asked, "Her sickness? What are you? Aspirin?"_

_Iori laughed lightly and shook his head. "I'm planning on protecting her from something much bigger than her sickness."_

"_And what's that?" Willis asked._

"_I can't tell you that." He said flatly._

_Suddenly the door burst open and Daisuke flew into the room excitedly._

"_AHH!" Meiyomon screamed, jumping in surprise. _BOOM_! The door of my bedroom burst into flames as it shattered._

"_Wow, I knew I was hot, but I didn't think I could set things on _fire_!" Daisuke laughed._

"_You wish you could do that." Willis laughed._

"_You wanna find out if I really can?" Daisuke asked jokingly, "Pretty sure if I pushed you into this door you'd be set on fire."_

_Suddenly the fire alarm began beeping wildly as we all realized what had actually happened. Daisuke and Willis set for the fire extinguisher as Iori moved toward me._

"_Is this what you're protecting me from?" I asked, "Things like this?"_

"_I can't tell you." Iori said with a look on his face that was filled with confusion, though he was trying to mask it with confidence. "I promised."_

"_Promised who?" I asked him._

_He didn't answer, but my mind was taken off of it instantly as Willis and Daisuke burst back into the room, putting out the fire._

I burst through the Temple door and ran as fast as I could down the shining bridge. I saw smoke billowing in a thick ghastly ribbon across the darkening sky as I ran toward the trees.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Hikari?" Lopmon asked me as she dug her fingers just a little bit further into my shoulder to make sure she didn't fall off as I ran as fast as I could. I was surprised really, at how well I was able to run... just thinking about going home had made me feel sick again, but here I was, leaping off of the bridge and then climbing up a rather steep hill as fast as I could to get into the forest...

"Yes." I said finally as I used a trees roots to pull me the final bit to the top of the hill.

I looked around but there were no signs to lead me to where I needed to be. And then suddenly I heard another small crack and my attention was turned to the West where I watched a tree go up in flames. I looked around nervously for whatever had caused the tree to catch on fire, but there was nothing there. A tree to the East suddenly burst into flames too.

"Stay behind me..." Lopmon said nervously jumping off of my shoulder, "I'll keep you safe Hikari..."

I nodded and watched as another tree went up in flames. Soon three more were on fire, and eventually I was surrounded by flames that were eating away at the trees around me.

"Come out!" Lopmon roared, "Come out so we can see you!"

I bit my lip hoping that there really was nothing there and that it was just a fluke of nature that had caused all of those trees to catch fire... but I knew that it wasn't...

I saw someone slowly stepping out from the tree directly in front of me. The figure in front of me was wearing bright yellow boots, green riding pants and a red, frilly jacket. His face was covered in a black and white mask, and his long yellow hair stood straight up. He was clutching a blue bear in his hands, and had four long golden swords on his back.

"Hello Hikari," He said formally.

"Piedmon..." I said nervously as he stepped toward me. Lopmon moved back a little, scared of our new foe. "Leave me alone."

Piedmon laughed lightly and then turned his yellow eyes on me with a glare. "There is no way that will be happening. You see... You're the one foolish enough to come here on your own."

"She's not on her own!" Lopmon said flatly, "I'll protect her no matter what!"

"Is that so?" Piedmon asked with a grin. He slowly swished his hands through the air and Lopmon was pushed aside. I gasped and tried to step toward her, but I was stopped as Piedmon's hand wrapped around my throat.

"Let her go!" Lopmon screamed, jumping to her feet and running at Piedmon. She leapt at his head as I was gasping for air, Piedmon's fingers slowly growing tighter around my neck. "Blazing Ice!" She screamed sending shards of pink ice toward Piedmon's head. The shards shattered around his mask but he didn't do so much as flinch.

I couldn't breathe at all... my vision was going darker as my lungs slowly emptied. I knew it was pessimistic to think that this was the end... but it sure seemed that way...

Suddenly Piedmon dropped me. I fell to the ground on my hands and knees and gasped deeply. I looked up as Piedmon walked away from me slowly.

"You see," He said as if nothing had happened, "It certainly wasn't very hard to lure you out here. You're weak Hikari." He turned to me sharply and grinned, "You see... this?" He stuck his hand out and uncurled his long and boney fingers revealing a silver whistle in his hands.

I gasped and jumped to my feet. "What did you do to her? Where is she?"

"Who?" Lopmon asked, leaping onto my shoulder once again.

"Gatomon..." I whispered airily. Maybe Ladydevimon _was_ right... maybe she was... gone.

"Well... you'll not find out." He said. "Your time is up... congratulations. You're going to be my first victim. You see I've made a little game with the others. Whoever destroys the most digidestined, is the winner. And the winner gets to kill the digimon... one... by... one."

"You're sick!" I gasped, pulling myself to my feet, "You won't get away with this!"

"Really?" Lopmon asked, "You said that?"

"Oh but I will." Piedmon smiled. "Because... I'm stronger than you." He reached behind him and grabbed a sword, slowly pulling it from the magic box on his back. He took a step toward me as my heart began to race. "Looks like I'm about to turn off your light, Hikari..."

"HELP!"

I turned my head suddenly toward the voice and found myself running away from Piedmon and toward the burning trees.

"Oh, so we're going to play this game?" I heard Piedmon ask from behind me.

"Help!" I heard the voice again, I changed direction to follow the voice.

"Who is it?" Lopmon asked. I didn't answer her. I didn't have time... I needed to follow the cries for help. "Not to be a bother or anything, but Piedmon is following you... and he's not running so it's really creepy."

I looked over my shoulder and saw that she was right. Piedmon was walking after me, the shadows from the trees and the dim light from the fading sun casting across him as he walked menacingly across the leaf covered ground. I turned back in time to see a tree branch.

I couldn't stop in time and found that I had run right into it. Pain spread like a crack in a glass across my face as I fell to the ground.

"Hikari!" Lopmon cried out. "Are you okay?" I shook my head but slowly pulled myself to my feet. I felt blood pouring from my nose so I tried to stop it. "He's coming!" Lopmon screamed suddenly setting me off, running again, this time with a bloody nose.

"Help me!" I heard the voice scream one last time. It was close now... "No! Put me down! NO!"

I skidded to a halt when I saw it. Puppetmon was back, his hammer across his back. He looked toward me with a grin as he squeezed the small digimon in his arms.

"Nyaromon!" I cried out. In his short fingers, Nyaromon was crying out for help. She looked toward me with her large, round eyes, begging for help without words. "Put her down! Now!"

Puppetmon smiled. "Okay!" He threw her toward the nearest tree as hard as he could where she bounced off with a small 'umph' and landed on the ground.

"Nyaromon!" I cried out again, running toward her. As I passed Puppetmon I pushed him away from me. He stumbled backwards but didn't fall. I scooped the fallen Nyaromon into my arms and smiled. I was so happy to have Nyaromon back that I had almost forgotten about Puppetmon and Piedmon in an instant.

"Just leave me alone!" I demanded almost tearfully.

"No!" Puppetmon complained, "No, no, no!"

"I'll just run then." I told them, "I'll run until Nyaromon is back up and ready to fight and then you'll go down."

Piedmon laughed, "You really think you can outrun us?"

"We'll find out I suppose..." I said slowly.

"And besides," He said with a grin, "That's not your partner. Your partner is locked up in chains. Forever."

"W-what?" I gasped, looking down at Nyaromon. It certainly looked like her... suddenly Nyaromon spun around to look at me, her grinning mouth was sewn shut and her eyes were glazed over with white. I dropped her in surprise as she morphed slowly into a simple Bakemon. "Where is she...?" I asked Piedmon, my heart seeming to plummet even further.

"Well you see," Piedmon said, slipping my whistle around his neck. "Your partner just wouldn't stay still, so I fixed her into something that wouldn't run away." He reached down to his belt and unclipped something, holding it up for me to see.

"You turned her into one of your sick key chains?" I gasped staring at the small Nyaromon key chain in Piedmon's hand.

"Yes," Piedmon smiled, "I'll release her if you come to me..."

"I..." I trailed off, thinking wildly.

"Go away Piedmon!" Puppetmon roared suddenly, stomping his feet like a child. "She's mine! I got her fair and square—go find your own digidestined to didi-destroy!"

"Puppetmon," Piedmon said smoothly, "If you get in my way, I will not hesitate in destroying you."

"Oh yeah?" Puppetmon asked, stepping childishly into Piedmon's way.

"Go!" Lopmon hissed into my ears.

My heart leapt suddenly as I ran. I needed to get back to the Temple—it was a safe place and as far as I could remember, the barrier had been put back up... that was what the man had said anyway, and now that I knew there was no way of saving Nyaromon with just Lopmon and myself, I knew I had to keep going.

"She's leaving!" Puppetmon screamed from behind me.

"Get out of my way you imbecile!" Piedmon snapped.

I ran through the trees, the pain in my nose growing as I did so. I wasn't really even sure if I was running the right way... I had gotten a little bit lost in my attempts to save Nyaromon, but I supposed that running the wrong way was better than letting them kill me, so I kept going.

I gasped when I found the familiar bush that led to the Temple, and skidded to a stop in front of it, pushing it aside roughly. I practically flew down the hill by the bridge excitedly... I was going to make it! I was going to be safe!

"Not so fast..." Piedmon said as he stepped out from behind a tree, tripping me. I bit my lip to avoid screaming as I rolled painfully down the hill, grabbing Lopmon and keeping her tightly in my arms. When I stopped rolling I pulled myself hastily to my feet and tried to run for the door, but suddenly I couldn't move.

I dropped Lopmon without willing myself to do so and turned around to face Piedmon and Puppetmon who was sitting in a tree part way up the hill. I saw strings leading from his fingers toward me and felt my heart sink as I realized that he was directing my every movement—I had zero control over what I was doing...

"Let her go!" Lopmon cried out. "Blazing Ice!" She shot again, this time toward Puppetmon who simply shook it off as if it were an irritating bug. "Hikari... I'm sorry! I can't do anything! My attacks don't hurt them!"

"I know!" I said quickly, "It's okay Lopmon—get into the barrier."

"Hikari..." Lopmon said sharply, "I can't just leave you!"

"Go!" I insisted.

Lopmon shook her head and closed her eyes as she turned and ran toward the bridge. When I saw that she was safe in the barrier, crossing the bridge toward the Temple door I sighed with relief. I looked back to Piedmon and Puppetmon who were both advancing on me now.

Suddenly I saw people... everywhere, walking around Piedmon and Puppetmon as if they weren't there. The trees had turned into buildings and the grassy ground beneath my feet was a paved road. I recognized this as the streets of Odaiba, and as I looked around I saw the overpass above me... this was exactly where Greymon and Parrotmon had fought. I blinked it away and shook my head and when I looked back, it was the forest again. Piedmon and Puppetmon seemed as if they had either not seen the change, or not cared. Either way, they were still advancing upon me...

"I'm coming Hikari!"

I looked back and saw Lopmon running toward me at full speed, this time with two other digimon with her. The Ogremon that had been teaching classes in the school and a Frigimon. I looked back to Piedmon as he drew a sword off of his back and threw it toward me hastily.

I clenched my eyes shut as the sword soared through the air toward me, but flung them back open when I heard the sound of the sword clanging on the ground.

"Need some help?" Ogremon smiled at me.

"Th-thank you!" I gasped as Frigimon shot ice toward Puppetmon who fell out of the tree. I felt the strings release me and I smiled as I turned to run. Frigimon and Ogremon ran off ahead, leading the way toward the barrier.

I was almost to the bridge now—there was no way someone was going to stop me this time... I stepped onto the bridge and felt relief spread through me.

Suddenly though, cold hands were holding onto my wrist. I spun around quickly and saw Piedmon's triumphant smirk before I slapped him across the face, slipping my hand out of his grasp and throwing myself onto the bridge. I stood up slowly and looked behind me. Piedmon had his hands on the invisible barrier around the Temple, and he looked, quite simply, like mime in an invisible box.

I heard a loud roar from overhead, and as I looked up relief once again coursed through my body. Megagargomon was flying back... Willis was back—the others were here—we'd be able to get home before the sun came down! I looked quickly to the sun and sighed. We had only a short time before we had to leave...

I sent one last glare toward Piedmon, noticing him turn to walk off, leaving his fallen sword behind, before running back into the temple.

_**Daisuke:**_

I couldn't understand why DemiVeemon didn't want to come with me. Couldn't he see what greatness we would accomplish? How important our work was?

We were achieving greatness in the name of the most powerful digimon that had ever existed: Fanglongmon.

He was perfection, he was the rightful ruler of the worlds, he deserved to be given what was his, and we were only helping him to receive that. It was a job of the highest honour, and he _chose_ me. _He _chose _me!_

And all because I was a great leader. He needed me.

The others didn't. They had Taichi, they didn't _want_ me.

I could see that now more than ever.

None of them believed in me.

Not like Kurayami did.

She was almost as perfect as Fanglongmon. She was everything I've ever needed.

Why the others couldn't see that still baffled me.

They were frightened of her, couldn't understand how a young girl could be so _twisted_. I shuddered at the negative thought. She wasn't like that at all. They hadn't bothered to get to know her. If they had, they would have been jumping for the chance to work for her, under my instruction of course…I was the leader here…or would be, when I had someone to lead. I couldn't lead Kurayami. She was too precious to me and to Fanglongmon. She could never be a simple minion.

"Will they come?"

It had been bugging me since I last saw my so-called friends. If they wouldn't allow me to _take_ my digimon when he wouldn't listen, how could we expect them to join our cause?

"…yes…"

Her answer was hesitant. I wondered if I had interrupted her and Fanglongmon's meeting. It never went well when I did that. The last time she clocked me in the head. She was very strong, my ears rang for hours. Interruption was one of the worst crimes I could commit.

"How many?" I asked hesitantly. If she answered quickly, I was safe. I wouldn't need to be punished for my insolence. I blamed my parents for that insolence. They never wanted _me_. They wanted to improve me, wanted me to become a genius like Ken used to be, wanted me to go to a respectable school, like Ken was going to, and start on a respectable career…like Ken. They didn't want me, they wanted Ken. After Jun—their enthusiastic, golden child—I was a disappointment. I never had their attention unless Ken was mentioned, they didn't agree with my future plans—plans that Fanglongmon has shown me were too small, I needed to think bigger—they didn't see me as any more than their failure of a son. My insolence was the only way I could get their attention; no matter that it was negative attention. It was something.

"If they are smart…all of them," Kurayami said stopping my unnecessary thoughts. I didn't need to think, Kurayami and Fanglongmon would do that for me. I scolded myself, before meeting her frighteningly beautiful, black eyes.

"And if they're not?"

"They will meet their end by Fanglongmon's decree," she said with such pleasure I couldn't help but feel it myself. Who needed friends that thought you as insolent as your parents? Were they really friends if they weren't on your side?

No.

Kurayami was my only friend.

"Will it be quick?"

Where had that come from? I was only just thinking how exciting it would be…

"Oh, it will be torturous. He wants to break them, break their will to go on, their hope, and their drive to keep fighting against him. He wants them to be destroyed on the inside before he ever does it physically," she said, and I felt a ripple going up my spine.

Was it fear?

No. Fanglongmon wouldn't hurt me; he praised those who listened to his command.

"LadyDevimon is working on this, attempting to redeem herself for losing that stupid cat," she continued. "Her collection is small, but it will grow, and then those disrespectful digidestined will rue the day they crossed me and Fanglongmon."

"Excellent," I said smiling brightly at her.

Why would _anyone_ want to cross her? It was pointless. The brilliant girl that she is would beat them into the ground for disregarding her, and she'd look beautiful doing it.

"It has been time enough," she announced. "Shall we see who is waiting and who has sealed their fate?"

"Oh yes, let's…"

_**Iori:**_

_The world was dark. I was surrounded by nothing._

"_You must save her."_

_The voice was back. I felt warmth run through my body at the very sound of it. She didn't scare me. She made me feel stronger, braver; she made me feel I had hope in this dark world._

_In a puff of smoke, a scene appeared to my right. It was a bedroom, and I watched on as I would a television. The walls were smoky, nearly translucent. A bed was against the side wall, pink comforter and sheets covered a girl…Hikari. She was frail, coughing into her clenched hand, her head resting against a pile of pink pillows that matched her blankets. Meiyomon was seated by her side, and Willis was at her feet. I was there too, seated at the computer chair…_

_I remembered this day. Not just because I'd seen the dream before, but because I'd lived it since the last dream._

_I watched as the shadow versions of my friends and myself talked, seeing their lips moving, but hearing nothing from them…until Meiyomon shouted out "Ahhh!" and the resulting explosion rang through the darkness as the door was set on fire._

_I remembered feeling a chill run down my spine as I saw the scene play out when it was me, and not a shadow that had to go through it. Seeing a dream come to life was frightening. Watching the shadow of me, I could see him watching in horror, knowing the reasons behind it were not the same as the others. They were only afraid of the fire…_

_Suddenly the scene exploded into smoke, allowing a second scene to poof into existence behind me. It wasn't a bedroom this time, it was the Digital World. I wasn't there this time …._

_I wanted to shout out to her, wanted to stop this, but Hikari was just a shadow of the past. She was hit, collapsing to the ground. Willis, Gummymon and Kokomon came running to her, helped her, until Gennai was able to get to her. He placed his hand over the wound on her arm, and took it into himself…I understood better now. I knew what he was doing._

_And instead of making me feel better, it gave me a foreboding chill._

_They were gone now, beside them I appeared, leaning against a cave wall…_

_I tried to gasp, but no sound came._

_It was the very cave I had been in before appearing here in this dark world of dreams._

_Ken and Michael were standing there, very pointedly ignoring each other with pensive looks on their faces._

_A couple years ago, I'd been so confused at this grouping. I didn't talk with Michael, and Ken was rarely angry…_

_Kurayami was there suddenly, and our attention turned to her. "Will you help us?" she said…_

_And they were gone. The dream was moving faster now. Less defined. I couldn't help but get disoriented. I turned to see the same small group, with Kurayami and Daisuke leading…and there was someone else, just at the faded edge. I couldn't see who. Kurayami was bringing us to a giant digimon. I thought at first it had to be Fanglongmon, now that I knew of the threat…but it could have been Dragomon…I'd never seen either of them…_

_Now I was in a dungeon. There was a strong glowing behind a set of bars. The air seemed to hum a pleasant little tune around me, fueling me with such positive energy._

"_Promise me…"_

_I started at her voice, but the cage and prisoner were gone. There was a dagger being released…though I didn't know who had it._

"_You have to save her, Iori."_

_The dagger flew through the air towards me._

"_You have to promise me."_

_The blade sliced through my chest, like the ghost image it was, and I turned around immediately to follow its path. If I had a voice I would have shouted out as the dagger flew towards Hikari._

"_Only you can save her. Promise me…"_

My eyes flung open and my heart pounded. "I promise!" I shouted.

"That's nice," Armadillomon said flippantly. "What are you promising?"

"It uh…doesn't matter," I said flushing, realizing I'd fallen asleep. But I was so tired. That catnap seemed to make it worse. I had a little taste of what I was missing and I wanted the sleep more than ever. My forehead was covered in sweat.

I wiped my brow, and rubbed my eyes. "How long was I out for?"

"Thirty minutes tops," a feminine voice said.

My blood chilled. Kurayami was already back. I hadn't had the chance to make up my mind.

_Think about Hikari…_

_Think about Natsuni…and Noriko…and Momoe…_

"Now that Sleeping Beauty here has joined us we have some business we need to discuss. I'll admit to thinking there would be more of you, some more qualified I suppose, but as it is, I'll have to deal with you lot. Ken here, you have some promise. Fanglongmon expects great things from you. Michael, you will be very…_useful_…to us later, for now though, you'll have to lie low. You aren't experienced enough for stealth work or spying," she said pacing in between us. Betamon was looking at her with rapt attention, while Armadillomon glared at her and Wormmon nervously flitted his eyes from place to place, to afraid to settle on just one thing.

She paced her way back to me.

"Fanglongmon find you most interesting," she declared. "He hasn't deemed it important enough for me to know, but he will be keeping an eye on you. Something about you confuses him. He is pleased to see you will stand with him."

"Well…I," I started.

"Well," she demanded. "Will you help us?"

_Think about Hikari, and Natsuni and Noriko and Momoe…_

"I'll do anything to help my friends," I announced solemnly.

She took that as a yes and led us away from the cave.

_**Hikari:**_

"_This is... Natsuni." Iori said slowly as he pulled the brunette girl into the room. She was smiling politely as she was being dragged. I noticed she was really pretty, and I also noticed that Iori was forcing her to come... I didn't want to make her come if she was nervous._

_Takeru was already sitting on the end of my bed. He was the first to shake hands with Natsuni. "Is this your girlfriend Iori?" Takeru asked with a grin._

"_No!" Iori shot defensively. "She's my best friend. This is the one I told you about Hikari."_

"_Oh you've been talking about me?" Natsuni asked with her eyebrows raised. "All good things I hope."_

"_A lot of good things actually." I admitted. Iori still didn't blush or even look remotely surprised by my statement._

"_Oh good!" Natsuni laughed, "It's nice to meet you both finally. Iori's told me a lot about you all. He's been really secretive though..." She grinned slyly, "What do you all have in common? How is little Iori so close to Mr Kido? There's such an age difference, my guess is that you're all secret spies and you're hiding it from—"_

"_Natsuni," Iori warned, "This isn't a movie. We're just perfectly normal teenagers."_

"_If you say so..." Natsuni sighed, "But are you sure you're not all magical? I mean, you say you're Miss Yagami's... like... body guard... what are you protecting her from? And what happened in that dream?"_

"_What dream?" I asked suddenly._

"_Body guard?" Takeru asked, eyebrows raised. _

"_Yeah he's protecting me..." I told him with a smile. _

"_You're just piling up on protectors now aren't you?" He asked me, "You've got your own secret service." I laughed at him, and then turned back to Natsuni, still curious about the dream. She and Iori were having a private, silent conversation with their eyes._

_Finally she turned to me and said, "I'm not allowed to tell you about it apparently." She smiled, "Would you like me to get you anything? Water? Fruit? A book? A ninja dart? I know you're all ninja spies!"_

_Iori put his head in his hands and shook it embarrassed as Takeru and I both laughed._

I was so glad that Natsuni was going to be safe... I'd only met her that one time... but just knowing that she'd be here, and not in the hands of some evil digimon made me happy. My nose was still bleeding as I followed Frigimon, Ogremon and Lopmon back into the Temple, but I hardly cared. The pain I was feeling was nothing compared to what Nyaromon had been through, and now, there she was, trapped in the hands of the most evil of digimon... helpless...

As I rounded a corner I smiled.

"Willis!" I heard Lopmon cry from my shoulder as she leapt into the air and ran toward him. I noticed Koushiro helping Mimi off of Megagargomon, holding his laptop tightly in one arm, as Yamato did the same for Sora. Jou was already on the ground, staring at a wall, with a look of pain across his face, and I suddenly knew that we weren't getting out of here any time soon.

Lastly I noticed Taichi and Willis waving at me, Lopmon on his shoulder, so I hurried over toward them, passing Miyako on my way.

"W-what... happened?" I asked them, taking in the hurt faces of all those around me.

"Your friend Kurayami happened." Taichi said. He was trying to make it sound less mean, but I knew he was frustrated with me.

"What did she do?" I asked Willis, who was smiling warmly at me, at least he didn't look as though this were all my fault.

"She sort of came to us asking us if we wanted to join her and Daisuke on the dark side..." He said.

"What?" I gasped, "They...?" Kurayami being on the dark side had happened before... but Daisuke? I knew I wouldn't fully understand what was going on yet. There wasn't time to explain it all, so I'd have to pick it up as we went along. "And who went?" I asked. "No one I hope?"

"Michael." Willis said flatly.

"Iori..." Taichi added. I gave him a strange look, glancing over my shoulder at the others... that wasn't possible... How could Iori, of all people join those who were siding with the forces of evil...?

"And Ken!" Miyako cried out behind me. I looked back quickly and saw her, she looked away from me to wipe her face for tears. I stepped toward her and put my hand on her shoulder. She looked to me and tried to smile. She shook her head quickly though and stepped toward me, hugging me.

"I'm so sorry Miyako..." I didn't know how to respond... but now wasn't the time for crying. I patted her on the back and took her hand as I looked around. Everyone looked hurt, sad and hopeless... it wasn't right. This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out! They were supposed to come back with everyone—all the others... we were supposed to win! I shook my head to clear my thoughts and hurried toward Mimi who still wore the goggles. "Mimi, you need to do something."

She turned sharply from Jou and Koushiro to whom she had been speaking with, biting her lip. "Hikari... there's nothing _to_ do. It's over. We can't save anything now."

I looked over my shoulder at the gate to the temple where Piedmon had walked away with Nyaromon, and noticed Ogremon and Frigimon waving at me. I smiled slightly at them and then looked around at those who were working to rebuild the temple... then to Agumon and the other digimon who were all sitting with one another, talking in whispered tones, and then finally to Miyako... Jou... Taichi... I shook my head and released Miyako's hand.

"Guys!" I called out, "Hi! Over here! Hikari here!" Everyone looked to me in a mix of shock and confusion. I cleared my throat nervously and then took a deep breath. "Okay, so the sun is going to go down in a little less than ten minutes... and so what Gennai wanted won't happen. But that doesn't mean we have to lose hope. Nyaromon is in the hands of Piedmon, and I don't care if any of you decide that you want to help me or not, but _I_ am not giving up just because of a minor setback such as the worlds becoming one. So Earth is in danger. Those of you who still have a digital partner can save the people. We'll figure everything about how the worlds will cope together later. Right now we have to brace ourselves for the worst and Find our friends, Momoe, Nyaromon... Ken." I smiled warmly at Miyako before I continued, "And then we'll defeat Fanglongmon. But if you all lose hope than we'll never succeed. So stop sitting around and doing nothing and start planning our next move." I smiled. "Koushiro, you and Taichi are a great tag-team—go plan something. I have faith in the two of you, and if not you two... then at least your laptop can do something useful. Mimi, you're our leader. We'll all follow your lead... but just remember... Keep focusing on the positive... focus on the hope." Everyone stared at me, stunned I supposed, not sure of how to respond exactly. "Go!" I said sharply.

Taichi, Yamato and Koushiro set off instantly, dragging Gennai and their respective digimon along with them.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around suddenly.

"Couldn't have said that better myself." Takeru smiled at me. I threw my arms around him suddenly. "Hope you didn't miss me... too much..." He laughed.

"I did!" I insisted, "I needed someone to talk to _so_ much!"

"About what?" He asked.

I looked over my shoulder to Willis who flashed a smile at me before continuing his conversation with Mimi and Jou. "Now's not really the time... but... can I tell you something...? Really quick?"

He nodded, "Of course."

I wasn't sure if I should be talking about it... but I figured if I was to tell anyone, then Takeru, my best friend was the person to tell. "So..." I took another deep breath, and broke eye contact with Takeru. "Willis and I were leaving you guys, I'm sure you remember that, but then Puppetmon attacked us and then someone attacked _me_, and then Willis saved me and then I sort of kissed him." I finished as quickly as I could.

I looked up to Takeru who was staring at me in shock, his mouth hanging open a little.

"Oh...?" He asked, "Well that's good then!"She smiled at me. I felt relieved... I wasn't sure why but I was. And I found myself smiling in the moments that followed, however I was quickly taken away from my conversation with Takeru by Mimi as she pulled me away from him.

"Hikari... that speech was amazing..." She said, reaching to her head and taking the goggles off. "You're... you're right to lead us. You take these. You know what we need to do better than anyone right now."

I shook my head instantly. "Oh, no." I told her simply, "I'm not getting dragged into this mess. You keep those Mimi." I pushed them back to her gently. "You're a good leader. You, along with everyone else was just hit with a major blow. You're just confused. It's okay, Mimi... you'll do fine."

"Hikari..." She said, shaking her head, "Really... I insist."

"Mimi... trust me. You can do this." I smiled at her and then looked around at the others. Taichi, Willis, Jou, Gennai and Koushiro were talking hurriedly with Tentomon, Agumon, Gomamon, and Gabumon as Mimi hurried toward them as Demiveemon, Otamamon, Terriermon and Lopmon stood by Miyako and tried to comfort her with jokes. Takeru stepped up next to me as I watched Sora and Yamato. I felt bad for overhearing their conversation, but they weren't exactly speaking in whispers.

"So you think you should just... go?" Sora asked him simply, "You think running after them is the best option?"

"Sora, you don't understand!" Yamato cried out, "I think I need to go! I think they need me! I need to follow them."

"You're turning against me." Sora said flatly. "Do you realize what this means for us?"

"What?" Yamato gasped, "I'm not turning against you Sora, I just... never mind. You're probably right. I'm being stupid." Sora looked away from him as he put his arms around her. "I'm sorry... I'll stay here... by your side."

"Promise?" Sora asked him.

"I promise..." Yamato said quietly, "I promise to stay by your side... Forever."

Sora looked away nervously, and then I forced myself to stop listening. It wasn't right to listen to that.

"What did that mean?" Takeru asked me, "Forever...?"

_Taichi, Daisuke and Koushiro were running ahead of us, as Sora had her arms wrapped around me, helping me run. I hadn't seen a sign of LadyDevimon in a while so I figured we were safe for now at least. Sora had Daisuke's goggles on her head and a smile across her face._

"_Where's Yamato?" I asked her, realizing suddenly how out of breath I really was._

"_I have no idea." She admitted. "I hope he's okay though..."_

"_Do you think we should go looking for him?" I asked her. She shook her head as we slowed down to turn a corner on the street. "Why not?"_

"_Right now, everyone is in danger, and as much as I'm worrying about his safety... we just need some time apart." She admitted._

"_And why is that?" I asked her._

"_He wants to plan our entire life out right now..." She explained, "He's literally working on becoming an astronaut for some crazy reason... his band isn't working out, he wants to move, and he wants me to go with him... he wants everything to be planned... but I don't want to plan anything. I want it to just happen—I want spontaneity! I want action, adventure, romance and surprises!"_

"_Well that sounds reasonable to me... why don't you just explain that to him?" I asked her._

"_Because he asked me to marry him." She said flatly. I was shocked to say the very least... I had always secretly hoped that Sora would end up with Taichi, but at the same time, she and Yamato just... worked better together. But... marriage already? Was she really debating it that much? "Don't tell Mimi..." _

"I... don't know Takeru." I lied simply, walking away from him as he watched his brother, confused.

I watched everyone move around until we were all one group again, everyone standing with their digimon in a circle.

"Mimi?" Taichi said slowly, "Take it away."

Mimi looked to me nervously and we exchanged quick smiles as she stepped into the middle of the group. "Loosing... Michael, Iori, Ken, Daisuke, and Kurayami is a minor setback."

Miyako made a strange noise as Demiveemon comforted her from her shoulder.

Mimi continued, "But our plan is simple. We will get to Fanglongmon's base as quick as we can. Koushiro will run scans or whatever it is that he, Willis and Gennai discussed and we'll find the location... we'll get in, save the others, and we will destroy Fanglongmon. After that we will see what comes naturally... Whatever... comes next, be it Dragomon, or something else... we'll all be there to face it together."

Everyone nodded simply except Gennai.

"We can't just allow this to happen..." He muttered. "We have to do something!"

"Like what?" Taichi shot.

"We don't have any options Gennai!" Mimi said loudly, "We can't magically make things happen the way you want."

"If we could have Momoe and the others with us then don't you think we already would?" Jou asked him.

"And if we did, then we'd gladly leave." Yamato said.

"We don't _want_ everyone on Earth to be in danger... but what choice do we have?" Sora asked.

"There's nothing you, or any of us can do about it Gennai." Koushiro said flatly.

Gennai shook his head. "On the contrary, there is." He stepped into the middle of the group and cleared his throat. "I _do_ have the power to eject you all from the digital world. I have the power to sort through everyone and put them in their proper place in the worlds. This is how I gathered all the digivices and digital partners back here."

"Then why don't you do something about it?" Miyako asked.

"Because it is dangerous and I was hoping you'd all listen to me." Gennai said, "But you see, you haven't listened... you've all done whatever you wanted no matter who it would affect. You all need to leave now. You're selfish, arrogant and you all smell like rotten Digi-eggs."

"We can't leave." Takeru said suddenly.

"What?" I asked him, "Why?"

"Because Gennai is wrong." Takeru said. "I don't know about any of you, but I've certainly not been thinking about myself... I've not been selfish, and I've been trying to figure out how to save the digital world. Gennai thinks that sending us away will make all his problems vanish—but it won't. Us being here has indeed caused more problems, and now some of us have even chosen the dark side... but if we have Gennai eject us all, or whatever it is he does, than we won't win... and the Digital world _will_ crumble—and then... one day, when Digimon come to earth like they did recently, then we won't be able to stop them. Everything will be gone—destroyed! And then they will kill us all... and we'll lose. We need to end all of this now—and Gennai, you can't do it without us and you know it."

"Oh really?" Gennai asked, his eyebrows raised, "I see your point Takeru, but quite frankly I know I can do this without you. Like you've said, you all being here is causing more trouble and drama, and if you all leave, that will all go away and I will be able to simply take my army and win the war. It will take some time and effort, but eventually I will succeed and the worlds will be at peace once more."

"Well, Gennai..." Willis said, "I know I'm not the boss around here in the digital world, but I've taken a look at how things work... and neither are you. You may have this all powerful army, you may have an amazing sense of right and wrong, and you may be in charge of this temple... but it's not up to you to decide who goes where and does what."

"Stop." Jou said suddenly. "Gennai—you said you could eject people from the digital world?"

"Yes..."

"Can you send Momoe home?" He asked flatly, "Momoe, Noriko—_and_ Natsuni?"

"Yes..." Gennai said, "But I cannot be selective... if they go home, you all go home."

"Then do it." Jou said.

"Right now." Miyako agreed.

"Do you really think a sudden world shift would be good for her baby?" Mimi asked sharply. "I don't want the baby to die." Both Jou and Miyako seemed to sink back into the group to think it over as Gennai bit his lip.

"This isn't a debate." Gennai said firmly.

"You're right." Mimi said, "It's not. And we're not leaving."

Gennai stepped forward toward Mimi angrily, but he was blocked instantly by Jou, Takeru and Koushiro. Gennai growled and looked away. "Well you'd better hold onto something then... you're about to destroy everything." Then he was gone, walking off alone.

We all looked to each other in confusion... did we make the wrong decision? Were we really about to bring an end to both worlds?

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Patamon asked.

"The meantime?" Lopmon asked.

"Like... an angry time?" Terriermon asked, "Sometimes I get angry..."

"In the meantime... I suppose we wait." Mimi said, ignoring Terriermon.

"So how long are we waiting for?" Jou asked. "I can't sit around and do nothing."

"Not long." Agumon said pointing toward the sky. I looked toward the sky and saw that the last rays of the sun were now fading over the horizon. "Look!" Everyone turned back to Agumon who was pointing to the ground before turning to stare toward their feet as the cobblestoned streets of the temple seemed to be fading into something much newer, and darker. Smooth, fresh paved streets. The buildings were changing into skyscrapers, and street lights seemed to grow out of flowerbeds... but the skyscrapers were rustic—they were clean and beautiful—majestic even... it wasn't the Digital World, and it wasn't Earth... it was some strange mix of the two... but I also knew the Dark Ocean was still out there somewhere...

"That's it?" Gabumon asked.

"And Gennai thought this was a problem!" Taichi laughed.

"Looks pretty cool to me!" Yamato agreed.

"Yeah, I was kind of hoping for more explosives." Gomamon sighed.

"Well isn't it better this way?" Tentomon asked.

Not a second after Tentomon finished speaking, a loud boom filled the air. My hands flew to my ears quickly and I noticed the others were doing the same. A strange wave seemed to wash over us all as the sound faded.

"Well that's more like it." Gomamon laughed.

"What was that?" Otamamon asked.

"Why do you have so many questions?" Koushiro shot toward the small creature sharply.

"Well sorry!" Otamamon growled.

"I still, honestly don't see what the problem was..." Yamato said, "So a loud bang and a change in scenery... otherwise this seems pretty safe to me."

"You're right..." Taichi said, "Something can't be right..."

"Perhaps it's not finished." Koushiro said flatly. It was not a suggestion or a hypothesis, he really thought there was more to this... and that meant that I did too.

Gennai returned to the group with a swish of his cloak and a scowl on his face as he looked around.

"I thought you were running away to do your own thing." Mimi shot at him.

"Well if I left, who would keep your big mouth shut?" Gennai grinned at her. Mimi smiled and shook her head as though him snapping back at her was some form of initiation into her good books or something. "Also I'm stronger than you all and I know what I'm doing. I can help you all."

"Are we done waiting then?" Jou asked quickly, "I want to get going."

"Should we, perhaps... rest first?" Gennai asked through gritted teeth. "You've already doomed us all... you may as well get some rest before you all fall over from exhaustion."

"No." Mimi said, shaking her head. "We have to go save Momoe." Jou and Miyako smiled at her briefly, before she turned on her heel and pointed toward the distance. Mimi began marching with Miyako, Jou, Gomamon, Yamato, Sora, Gabumon, Tentomon and Koushiro following closely.

"Hikari..." Taichi said, patting my shoulder, causing me to turn suddenly and smile at him. "Your speech was great... I'm proud of you. You'd be a great leader."

"Well I had a good teacher." I smiled at him before hugging him tightly. "You're a good leader too you know... and I'm proud of you for being so accepting of everyone wearing those goggles."

"Well everyone's got to be a follower sometimes Hikari," Taichi smiled before turning and chasing Agumon to follow Mimi's lead.

Gennai stepped up to me and smiled as we started walking. "There's more to you than meets the eye Hikari." He smiled, "You're quite the girl."

"Uhm... thank you?" I tried, looking over my shoulder for Takeru and Willis. I noticed the man with the black hair standing behind them watching me. "Gennai!" I said sharply forcing him to turn around and look, "Who is that?" I pointed at the man.

"I... don't... know." Gennai admitted as the man turned and walked down an alley way between two houses.

I wanted to follow the mysterious man, but I knew that right now, was not the time to do so.

Gennai patted me on the shoulder before moving on ahead and making room for Willis and Takeru to take their place on either side of me.

"So..." Willis said slowly, "Anyone else notice something missing?"

"People?" Takeru suggested instantly, "I've been wondering the same thing..." No one spoke for a moment as we passed under the Temple arch and onto the bridge. He had a point, where was everyone...? If this was Earth, then where were all the people?

As we moved along the bridge I noticed Gennai picking up Piedmon's fallen sword.

"Did anything interesting happen when I was gone?" Willis asked.

Lopmon and I exchanged looks and then shook our heads, "No, not really..."

And that's when it happened. I heard the most terrifying, blood curdling scream I'd ever heard and I looked around in a panic. Suddenly they were everywhere... I was surrounded by screams... the bridge faded into something much less majestic, the mist around the temple dispersed and the overpass appeared once again. The ground began to shake as we all struggled to grab onto someone or something and keep our balance. I had been under the impression that the world had already combined—what was happening? The ground began to crack and shift until slowly it came to a halt. Suddenly with another loud boom and a flash of light everything changed.

There were people! Suddenly we weren't alone... but unfortunately, as the streets continued to form, the people faded in, more and more, and most of them with screams and looks of terror as the digimon advanced on them. The digimon had invaded Earth...

I knew this wasn't going to be as easy as I had hoped...

_**Toshiko:**_

"You're going the wrong _way_!" Bakemon growled from my arms.

I was sitting in the passenger seat of Hiroaki's vehicle with Bakemon held tightly in my arms. Hiroaki was driving next to me and had thrown all the seats out of the back of the SUV so Rei could join us in her wheelchair. She, Kae, and Wizardmon were huddled in the back watching as Hiroaki drove like a madman through the streets

"I am _not_ going the wrong way." Hiroaki insisted, "I know where I'm going, so sit down and stay quiet." He seemed very focused on whatever it was that he was doing...

I found myself yawning as I glanced out the window toward the sunset. I smiled slightly at the sight before turning to Hiroaki once again. He was biting his bottom lip as he veered the car left and right.

"Would you mind filling the rest of us in perhaps?" I asked him slowly.

"You'll find out in a—" He paused as he turned the steering wheel sharply and rounded a corner, barely missing a group of children dressed in battle armour and heading toward a group of small digimon. "A minute..." he finished calmly.

"Is it going to take long?" Kae asked from the back seat. "I want to find my Ken and keep him safe..."

"You'll find your son!" Hiroaki insisted. "We all want to find our children too—you'll find him... just not yet!"

"Hiroaki," Wizardmon said in a whispery tone, "Stay calm. Whatever is troubling you will all turn out alright in the end—I'm sure of it. And until it does turn out alright I'll stick around to make sure things start going your way."

"And why would you do that?" Hiroaki asked him.

"I've nothing better to do. I'm dead you see." Wizardmon laughed and shook his head, "No... I would do that because I like you Hiroaki. You're smart, brave, kind... just everything a friend should be."

"Oh we're friends?" Hiroaki asked him with a small grin.

"I thought so." Wizardmon replied.

"Good." Hiroaki smiled, "I thought so too."

Suddenly Hiroaki hit the brakes and the car came to a screeching halt outside of an apartment building next to a small lake.

"Where are we?" Rei asked.

"Just wait here." Hiroaki said slowly, "I'll be right out and then we'll go see Wisemon." I thought he was being a little secretive and mysterious and now wasn't really the time for that but I nodded slowly. Whatever was here was clearly important to him.

"I'm going with you." Wizardmon declared.

"No." Hiroaki said, "You stay here and make sure everyone is safe."

"Yes sir!" Wizardmon smiled.

And then he Hiroaki was off, running toward the building as fast as he could. We watched him run for a bit but once he threw the doors open we all turned to one another with the same worried expressions across our faces.

"I hope Ken is going to be okay..." Kae said.

"Ken will be fine. He's with Sora and the others." I told her with a smile. "They've saved the world time and time again."

"They've _what_?" Rei asked slowly, "Saved the world how?"

"You... don't know?" I asked her.

"Well I heard you talk about it, but nothing is making sense and no one has really taken the time to explain it all to me." Rei sighed, "Taichi's somewhere out there, and he's apparently saving the world... and I just want to know what's going on—"

Rei's speech was cut off by Bakemon who made a strange hiccup sound and then tried to pass it off as himself falling asleep.

"What was that?" Kae asked slowly.

"He saw something." Wizardmon said slowly, gliding forward into the front seat to take a look around. I looked with him. I wasn't sure what I'd find but I knew I'd have to try—something dangerous could be out there. And then I saw it! I knew it was something because there weren't usually little round men in trees outside apartment buildings.

"There!" I cried out pointing toward the trees. "In the branches."

"Mamemon!" Wizardmon shouted quickly. "This isn't good..."

"What's not good?" Rei asked him. Wizardmon didn't answer her. Instead he jumped through the car door and flew across the grounds toward the apartment door. "What's he doing?"

"Probably warning Hiroaki." Kae said.

"And we should do the same." I declared as I clicked my seat belt and opened the door. I hopped out of the vehicle and dragged Bakemon behind me on the rope as I ran to the back door and opened it quickly assisting Kae in getting Rei out. And then we were moving across the grass as fast as we could with Rei in her chair until we reached the front door. I pushed it open quickly and held it for Kae to push Rei through.

"Can't you just leave me in the car?" Bakemon whined.

"No." I shot at him quickly as Kae and Rei shot past me and toward the elevator. They pressed the button as I glanced out the window for the so-called Mamemon. He was still in his tree... he didn't seem dangerous, but apparently Wizardmon was worried. When I turned back to the others they were getting onto the elevator so I rushed across the floor toward them and hopped into the elevator.

"How do we know what floor he's on?" Kae asked.

"We don't." Rei said sharply, reaching up and pressing as many of the buttons as she could.

"Well now we'll be stuck on this elevator forever." Kae said slowly.

No one said anything until the elevator began to move. And even then it was only Bakemon muttering about humans technology. When the elevator finally stopped, before any of us could say anything, Rei had screamed out Hiroaki's name. We waited in silence for a moment but he didn't come, and so when the doors closed again and the elevator moved up once more we knew we had one less floor to search.

Again and again the elevator stopped and opened its doors as Rei screamed out for Hiroaki. And finally our calls were answered.

Wizardmon appeared in front of us, flying through a wall, his fingers to his lips.

We all moved forward in caution and silence as Wizardmon led us toward an open doorway that read 'Takaishi'.

As we looked inside all three of us gasped and put our hands over our mouths. I quickly caught the rope around Bakemon that I had accidentally released as I looked around the torn up apartment. The rooms were a mess, the couch was ripped to pieces and the floor had scorch marks on it. And then there was Hiroaki sitting on his knees, staring toward the floor.

"Sir... we have to go now." Wizardmon said, "We have to go find this Takaishi woman. And we need to get out of this building—there is a rather explosive digimon just outside—"

"I knew she was going to be okay." Hiroaki said slowly, "I just had a feeling she'd be fine." He looked back at us slowly, "But I was wrong..."

The light from the setting sun was casting in on him from the broken window and it looked as if it almost intensified the pain he was feeling. I saw Mamemon cackling with laughter as he bounced through the air exploding the ground around him... at least we were safe for now...

"Hiroaki..." Kae said, "We'll find her—and Yamato, Takeru... Ken. We'll find all of them."

Hiroaki nodded and slowly pulled himself to his feet. He looked away from us, wiped his face and straightened his shirt, trying to compose himself. He turned back just as the light from the sun faded completely. "You're right."

Suddenly the floor began to crack and shake.

"Mamemon?" Kae asked Wizardmon quickly.

Wizardmon shook his head and said, "This is it."

"The end?" Rei shot.

"No!" Wizardmon sighed, "The Union."

I heard Rei scream and I turned back to her quickly to see her wheelchair being lifted by a tree that was growing from the floor of the apartment, and her sprawled out on the floor. "Rei!" I called quickly as Kae moved toward her to help her sit up.

"What's the Union exactly?" I asked Wizardmon.

"It's the beginning of the end..." He sighed, "Your children have failed... the puzzle will forever be uncompleted."

"They haven't failed!" Bakemon laughed, "They've only created a world where chaos will rule—how is that a failure? I'd give them all A plus's! And whoever the crazy bat is who lives here—she's probably dead."

Hiroaki growled in rage as he leapt toward Bakemon angrily. "Hiroaki no!" Wizardmon screamed, reaching forward and grabbing Hiroaki's hand tightly. Wizardmon and Hiroaki looked to their joined hands for a moment in shock before Wizardmon jumped back quickly and looked down at himself. The ground was shaking wildly and suddenly the room was lit up. I ran forward to look out the window at the sky.

There were streams of white light shooting all over the sky. It looked like some sort of beautiful fireworks.

"Wizardmon!" Hiroaki called out suddenly. "Wizardmon?" the worry in his voice the second time around brought my attention to him. I looked back and gasped. In Wizardmon's place was a large egg...

"What's going on?" Rei asked, "What's wrong with Wizardmon?"

"I... don't know." Hiroaki admitted stepping forward and placing his hand on the large egg which began to glow softly. Rei crawled toward the egg with ease and felt it as well.

"I can feel it's heart beat..." She said as she slowly pulled herself to her feet.

"Rei?" We all gasped.

"H-how?" Kae asked.

Rei smiled, "Oh, my walking?" She shrugged her shoulders, "I had a feeling I would be able to do it. When I went into that forest I could walk—and I have the same feeling in my heart as I had then..."

"So you just decided to walk?" Hiroaki asked.

"Well—" Rei started.

"W-what's that?" Kae asked cutting her off, pointing out the window. I figured now wasn't really the time to be focusing on random abilities the rest of us had at the moment. We could discuss Rei's new found walking privilege later, after whatever was happening was over—so long as it did indeed end... rather than continue to plumet the world into a pit of despair. "What's going on?" Kae asked.

I looked out the window where Kae was pointing and shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what the lights were.

But I was about to find out.

One of them was flying straight toward us. I jumped out of the way as it shot into the apartment and toward Hiroaki. It landed in his hand, still glowing brightly as the large egg in front of him shattered. We all stared as Wizardmon stepped from the egg's remnants, solid and better than ever...

"What just happened?" Hiroaki asked as the light in his hand shone toward Wizardmon.

"I think..." Wizardmon looked at Hiroaki's hand, "I think the worlds are becoming one." I looked out the window and saw that we were certainly no longer in normal Japan, so that made sense, "I think that... the digivices are being released..." he pointed toward Hiroaki's hand, "And I think that I just became your partner—but I think... most of all... that... I'm alive."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Sorry…I didn't change this last time… Oops. Well, on the plus side, this chapter was entirely surprising for you… Taichi and Willis take on the next chapter, the first in Arc 4, so things are going to start to get really exciting now!


	31. Main Street

**Y/N:** This seemed so depressing to write to me, but I couldn't figure out why, so I tried to have Taichi deal with things in a unique sort of way—well, unique compared to the other characters I write for. I hope it worked out well, and that you enjoy it. :) Let me know what you think in a review if you would be so kind, thanks! P.S. the chapter heading really doesn't mean anything…too much. I couldn't come up with anything else… sorry it's not cool or anything…

**U/N:** I'm all written out today—sorry, so Willis/Yuuko isn't very well done. With Willis I was trying to write the awkwardness into the style, but it was hard—sorry about that, and with Yuuko I just found it interesting that both Yuuko and Yoshie were similar to their children, so I played with that a little... but I'm also in a very... hyper... but also bored mood—so they aren't well done—and I'm not even sure how clear they are, but I promised they'd be done on time, sooooo... anyway... review this—

Also the length of the last chapter... sorry about that—just the arc ending chapters are going to be BIG. The next one won't be quite AS big—but just as, if not MORE important, so I guess... just beware of the ends of the arcs... aha ... so enjoy this?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 31: Main Street**

_**Taichi:**_

It was strange, stranger than seeing the Dark Ocean melding itself to the Digital World, to see my own home being forced to comply with the other two. The dull, lifeless colour scheme had stayed the same. And the water, from what I could see of a puddle anyway, it was still black and unwelcoming. But it was the fact that this was a busy Odaiba street, with people cowering in fear at our digital companions, and the cracks in the sidewalk and street's surfaces where digital trees had forced their way through. The buildings too, were damaged, though I couldn't see why. The trees hadn't got to them. The few people that weren't terrified by our motley group of humans and _rookie_ digimon were staring at the trees in wonder, and the rather large mountain, just beyond the city limits, that had _not_ been there before.

"We're not in Kansas anymore," I mumbled, taking the strange sight in. What could have made them so afraid of our digimon? They were loveable and small compared to the digimon that tried to destroy the world or whatever back in 2002—all over the world even. These little guys wouldn't hurt them. Couldn't they see that we were the good guys? That we were trying to _save_ them?

"What?" Agumon asked confused. I chuckled.

"A movie reference. We'll have to watch it when we're done or something. It's about a kid going to another world. I can relate you know?" I told him.

"Another child went to the Digital World? Hopefully before all of this happened then," he said so seriously I didn't have the heart to correct him. He'd understand after the movie. If Gennai allowed us time to watch a movie. If Gennai let us do anything.

You'd think with all we've done for him and his world he'd trust us more, allow us more freedom, more time with our closest friends. As great a friend Rei was, it wasn't enough to fill the hole that Agumon had left three years ago. I just needed time with him. He was the only friend I had that understood me completely. Who saw my mistakes and guided me to learn from them, helped me become a better person.

I'd missed him far too much and I'd be damned if I let Gennai cheat me out of any of this reunion.

I sighed and ran my hand over my face. I was getting too old for this. I chuckled dryly as I thought it over. I really was. I was only twenty-one years old, but it was getting to be too much. The world expected too much from me now, and to have the Digital World trying to destroy everything I loved and lived for…well, I didn't know what to think anymore. Jou was going to be a dad. _A dad!_ And I was trying to find a career that I could work towards while struggling to finish the work load I allowed Yamato to sign me up for. I couldn't admit defeat and drop a subject or two. I had to finish it. Just like he was. I'd signed him up for a boat-load of sciences because I knew he hated them. We were so mad at each other back then. And we'd allowed it to change our futures.

Futures we weren't even sure of anymore.

Futures that might not have been ours to plan for in the first place. The Digital World never seemed to be done with us—and because of Agumon and the others I was very grateful for that, but also…concerned too—and made us unstable human beings. Jou's baby could die, Hikari could die, _I_ could die, just because of the Digital World, just because we exist. I didn't like not knowing. I was going to fight for the Digital World regardless, and I was going to live my life to the fullest There was no way I'd take this sitting down. But there was still the sliver of fear. We were ticking time bombs; all of us were an explosion waiting to happen.

That is…if Gennai was even right. He'd been wrong so many times in the past that I couldn't be sure anymore.

And that's where the fear really was. I didn't know. I didn't know if I was really ticking down to an untimely death, or if he was just trying to scare us into submission.

He seemed to be doing things for the 'greater good' of the Digital World, but I was starting to question his morals. He didn't seem to care for us, just about whether we lived or died while under his protection. He was trying to convince Sora and Yamato that they couldn't be together, and Miyako and Ken—not that that amounted to anything much anymore, thanks to Fanglongmon—and Hikari with her first…_whatever-it-was_…with Willis. And everyone could see that Koushiro and Mimi were just waiting to happen. It didn't matter to him how they felt about each other. He just wanted things his way.

That _had_ to be it. Otherwise we were all doomed to be miserable.

How could I willingly get into an actual, legitimate relationship—not those stupid short flings Rei kept setting me up for—knowing that I _could_ die on them at any given moment? I couldn't do that. Which meant that my future, what little bit I could control, was doomed. I had no idea what I was going to do for a career, I couldn't bring myself to have a family or anything anymore, I would be stuck living with my parents forever, and forever be on call for the Digital World. And the Digital World couldn't go more than four years without a problem, so really, that would be a part-time job at least.

Granted, if I had to put up with Gennai much longer, I doubted I'd even willingly do that.

"Taichi?" Agumon asked me looking nervously at me.

"Yeah buddy," I said.

"Are you okay? You don't look okay," he said.

"I'm tired," I complained. "Being tired makes me all philosophical, thinking about the future, and it's making me depressed."

"Oh," he said nodding in understanding. "I don't do that."

"I know you don't," I said. "Only people with no life do that. Like me. God I'm a loser."

"But you're a fun loser," Agumon said trying to be uplifting. I laughed at him.

"I'm a fun loser?" I asked with a snort.

"The very funnest," he said solemnly.

"Funnest is not a word," I informed him feeling surprisingly better about everything.

"It is in the Digital World," he argued…and I honestly couldn't dispute that claim. He'd won this round.

"Where are we even headed?" I asked instead.

"Gennai told us just a minute ago. Weren't you listening?"

"Apparently not," I said. How could I have missed the big shots newest orders? His voice was strangely loud and annoying, making it impossible to ignore. Maybe hopeless wallowing had a purpose after all.

"We're going to the mountain," Agumon said. "With the way the worlds are now, we have no idea where we're supposed to be headed. He's hoping that some of the people there will have already tracked down the new coordinates by the time we get there."

"There's a lot balancing on that 'maybe'," I told him thinking of the baby Jou had somehow managed to create. Honestly, that guy didn't even have time to eat or sleep, how did he manage to keep a girlfriend?

"I know," he said softly. "But it's all we've got. This world is too confusing."

"We'll have to take this road then," Gennai decided, turning down a street I knew. Well, only just discovered anyway. I'd avoided it all my life until just last summer when I needed some reference books. It lead to the library, not at all close to the newest mountain in Japan. That was further north, and this road would lead us south-west.

"We'll have to take the north road," I told him. "And then swing down Main Street until we reach Twenty-Second Street North. That will lead us out of Odaiba anyway. We might need to go a little further north, depending on what plot of land that mountain decided to inhabit."

"Ah, so you know this land?" Gennai asked in surprise.

"I grew up here," I said. "Most of us did. This road leads to the public library. If we take a left turn at the intersection we end up at the Cinema. There's a grocery store the east of us, and well known flower shop six streets over."

Sora smiled wistfully, before remembering she was angry with her mother. I sighed. I'd tried at the very least.

"We know where we are," I told him. "I've got this."

"Then by all means, lead the way," he said.

I stared at him in shock. He was giving in that easily? It seemed too good to be true. I'd decided it was a trick when Agumon nudged me forward. He gave me a reassuring look before nodding at me to move.

Mimi seemed happy at least to have me leading her rather than Gennai. "I'm so glad I didn't have to do that," she'd said, touching the goggles on her head. "I doubt I even remember the geography here. I've got too much of New York running through my mind."

"Well," Koushiro said calmly. "You have lived there for the past ten years. It's only natural."

She smiled brightly at his defense. He was so obviously hung up on that girl. Tentomon buzzed his agreement, but had nothing further to add, and had chosen to remain silent. I didn't understand the robotic ladybug. Not just the words he said—I mostly didn't understand them either though—but his whole attitude. He was like Koushiro, but to the extremes. I hadn't ever just sat down with him to talk. Come to think of it, I hadn't had time to just sit down with any of the other's digimon—aside from Gatomon—and just talk with them.

I should have though.

I vowed to do so, on two conditions. One: I had to survive the upcoming battle, and Two: it would only work if we weren't barred from the Digital World again. I couldn't do this on a time limit, like the one we were on now. I needed time, to truly get to know each of them. To build the bond of teamwork up to a new level. We were all so focused on our own digimon that we tended to forget about the others…

I could fix it, though, and I would if given the opportunity.

"This street, this Main Street," I heard Gennai ask Jou. "What makes it so main?"

"Oh, err, well, I suppose it's because it was the first street in the town, and it runs the whole way through it? It's also where the most popular shops are placed, and the traffic is a nightmare," Jou said.

"Traffic?" Gennai asked puzzled. I had to laugh. Jou walked right into that one. Gomamon was laughing right along with me, louder though, thankfully covering my laughter up. Jou didn't look too pleased by the sound.

Sora, I noticed, was talking to Takeru and Patamon in a hushed tone. Whatever it was, she was embarrassing Takeru—his face was bright red—and he was declining something quite adamantly.

Hikari seemed to have taken it upon herself to cheer Miyako up, and so, with the help of DemiVeemon, Willis, Terriermon and Lopmon, she was trying to do just that. They were telling her funny stories, and trying to build up her confidence, but Miyako seemed sure that she was the reason he chose to turn evil. I had to resist rolling my eyes. Ken was a prime candidate for Fanglongmon. I _had_ to believe that they didn't know what they were doing. They couldn't. They were too _good_, to pure, to turn evil willingly. But they'd made their choices. Made their beds, as the saying goes, and so they would have to lie in them. Or something like that.

Honestly, being philosophical hurt my head, yet another reason why I shouldn't be left alone to brood.

It was Yamato and Gabumon though, that held my gaze. They were whispering to each other. Yamato looked tortured, like he was struggling with something, and I wanted to help him. It was instinct. He was my best friend. And I would have gone over too, had the look on Gabumon's face made me stop. His face was set, firm; he was trying to do what I would have done, trying to talk him out of doing something stupid.

A feeling of dread settled in my stomach. I wasn't going to like whatever it was he decided.

"How long, do you estimate, will it take us to get to the mountain now that we must follow these paved roads?" Gennai asked.

"It would only take Jun a couple of minutes," Otamamon said proudly.

"Yeah," I said looking at the lost little guy sadly. "But she's got a car. We're walking. Twenty minutes though, a half hour. Not too long, depends on how fast we travel."

I tried waving to a woman I recognized as one of my neighbours, but she just looked at me, and then looked at Agumon in terror, before hastily crossing the street. That made me wonder. She was actually crossing the street to avoid me. That, I could honestly say, had never happened to me before.

Seriously though, _what_ happened on Earth while we were gone? Not enough time had passed since the union for that to be the sole cause.

"And you are _sure_ you know where you are going?" Gennai clarified.

"Yes," I said. "Sheesh, don't you trust me?"

I noticed he chose not to answer that question. What a maroon.

"There, look, that's Main Street," I said, masking my shock quite well, I thought. It looked like a war zone. The windows in many of the shops were smashed, and the sidewalk and street faces were torn up. Trees were everywhere, between buildings, on the sidewalk, between parked cars, in the middle of the street. I could see that there were quite a few accidents caused by the union. What with the trees coming out of nowhere while they were driving. There were still paramedics in the area, surveying the site for anymore injuries before moving on to the next location. This wasn't right. I blamed the Dark Ocean. If just the Digital World and Earth collided like this, it wouldn't have been nearly so bad. It's just because of the pure evil that the Dark Ocean gave off. That was totally it.

I couldn't help but scan the area for my father's car though, just in case. I breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn't there.

"We'll just walk along Main Street for four, five blocks, and then we'll be on the right street," I announced, mostly for Gennai and the digimon. Even Willis could manage his way around Odaiba, despite how little time he'd actually spent in the place.

Gennai nodded solemnly.

I glanced back at Yamato, hoping to see he'd changed his mind and decided not to do whatever stupid thing he'd thought up…but I was wrong. He was slipping away from us, having drifted to the back real casual like, so as to go unnoticed. But he was over near an alleyway when I looked. He noticed me staring, and faltered for a moment. I shook my head, telling not to go. He couldn't just leave like this. He was my partner, the other half of the tag team…my best friend, not to mention what it would do to Sora.

But then he met my eyes. And I knew nothing would change his mind. He'd decided, and now he had to start living with that choice. He was leaving us. In that short two second moment when our eyes connected, I understood what he was doing. He'd wanted to stay in the first place, but he hadn't wanted to upset Sora. Now though, he knew he'd chosen wrong. It was wrong to try and placate Sora when he wasn't happy himself. So he decided to do something for him.

It was the _wrong_ choice, I knew that. But he wasn't going to stay just because I said so. He slowly turned his back on me, on us, his friends and team, to join Kurayami and her forces of darkness. I couldn't accept it, but I could believe it. He'd wandered off before. He'd come back though, he had to. He always did in the past. If he didn't, I'd hunt him down myself. And it wouldn't be pretty.

I couldn't, however, bring myself to tell the others that he'd gone. They hadn't noticed, and I don't know what it was—be it my instincts as a best friend or something else—I wanted him to have some distance, before they knew, so they couldn't run after him and force him to come back.

He wouldn't be any help to us if he wasn't a devoted member anyway.

I was pretty silent for awhile. I didn't want to betray Yamato…despite the fact that he'd literally abandoned me.

"Where are we now?" Mimi asked, shaking me out of my brooding. Really, Agumon shouldn't let me do that. "I recognize the street, but my view of Odaiba is a little foggy." She was pointing to the street branching off of Main Street. A very familiar street to me.

"Taichi, Daisuke and I live just down there, in that apartment building," Hikari said kindly, her voice faltering on Daisuke's name. The little jerk. Tries to take my place as her brother and then throws everything he has to the wind for the demon queen. I couldn't stand him at the moment. I couldn't understand him either.

"We should go and tell your mom you're alright then," Willis suggested. "She's probably having a breakdown right now."

Hikari's eyes lit up, but then she shook her head. "We can't. Mom's fine…I think. She should be. She knows about digimon, a bit anyway. She'll understand."

"I don't know," I said teasingly. "I doubt she'd understand a bit. _I_ don't even understand what's happening."

She started laughing, and it was music to my ears. I'd finally done something right. Willis, Takeru and the twin digimon were laughing as well, with Koushiro looking as though he was ready to give me a debriefing of the situation. Mimi and Tentomon were trying not to laugh at him, and Sora and Patamon were looking towards Gennai, whose face was growing redder with anger. Otamamon looked desperately down the street, in the opposite way of my house, towards the Motomiya residence. Looking for Jun I suspected. Agumon stepped between me and Gennai, his eyes narrowing. Nothing was going to hurt me with him around.

"We do not have the time to waste on such frivolities. We are working now on just borrowed time. This should have been dealt with days ago. If you'd just listened to me, then we wouldn't be in this mess at all. You cannot expect to have any effect on the Digital World any longer. You do not even own your crests, you gave them away," Gennai said. A few of the other's gasped at his outburst. The few that had been trying to hold on to the image Gennai had in the past: the floating-glowing guy that helped us out of all of our jams. Koushiro, Hikari, Sora. They wanted him to redeem himself. But he'd just pushed a little too far for my liking.

"You know what Gennai? You think we're useless, that we can't help you. But you're just as useless if not _more_ now. You can't even figure out where you're going," I shouted at him.

"And whose fault is that?" he hissed.

"I don't want to hear it," I told him coldly, holding both my hands up in surrender. "I don't want to hear another _word_ that comes out of your mouth."

And I turned away, just as Yamato had, and stalked away from him. Maybe I'd continue towards the mountain. Maybe I'd hunt down Fanglongmon's base on my own. Maybe I'd track Yamato down and give him a piece of my mind. But one thing was for certain.

Gennai couldn't order me around anymore.

_**Willis:**_

"Taichi!" Hikari called as Taichi stormed off, Agumon running after him, looking back at the rest of us. He finally turned and followed his partner. "Taichi!" Hikari yelled louder.

I looked around and sighed. Without Taichi and the others the group looked so small and weak. How were we supposed to save all the worlds and dimensions if we couldn't even stay a group? Iori, Michael, Ken, Daisuke and Kurayami were all gone now and that was a full third of our group and then with Taichi gone it was almost half of us missing—there was someone else missing though... Miyako and Hikari were right next to me with Demiveemon, Lopmon and Terriermon, Takeru and Sora were standing near Mimi, Jou and Koushiro their digimon, and lastly Gennai was standing, his arms crossed, watching Taichi go.

"Well now look what you've done!" Mimi shot at Gennai. "You're such an idiot! You've made our only leader just pack up and leave. I commend you and your wonderful attempts at keeping this group alive." She turned to the rest of us. "Can we have a vote?" She cleared her throat, "Who votes that we beat the crap out of Gennai?" Terriermon and Lopmon were the only ones to raise their arms. Mimi rolled her eyes and turned back to Gennai. "We've done nothing but try to help you, and all you do is complain."

"That's not true." Gennai said sharply, "I've been trying to protect you all. And look around you! I was right! This world is in _ruins_ now! If you'd all just listened to me in the first place instead of paying attention to this princess who calls herself a digidestined then none of this would have happened."

Gennai had a point... it was stupid to not see this, but at the same time, I didn't care one bit—We would fix this no matter what the costs... I shook that from my mind—there was still something wrong here but I couldn't place it.

"She's not a princess." Jou said, coming to Mimi's rescue, "And Gennai—no one cares what you have to say. We may have when we were gullible children and still thought everything was sunshine and rainbows—but now seeing you in your true light we've realized that all you care about is making us upset. And if that's not the case then you simply have a terrible way of showing it. You can either: follow us and stop trying to take lead—or did you not notice, you're actually _not_ wearing the leadership goggles—or you can get lost."

"Whoa Jou..." Gomamon said, eyes wide, "That didn't sound like you at all."

"Well," Jou said, turning quickly to Gomamon. "I'm sick of letting him push us around. He's keeping us from saving Momoe. I can't allow Iori to have to do this alone! Maybe I should have just gone with them to begin with..."

"Jou don't say that!" Gomamon shot.

"You picked the right path." Mimi said comfortingly.

"We all did." Sora added. "Except those who chose to follow Kurayami."

"Yamato!" I said suddenly.

"What about him?" Sora asked, looking around quickly. "W-where is he?"

"Yamato?!" Jou shouted out. Soon everyone was screaming except Gennai and I. I shot him a glare and then turned to the others.

"Guys!" I yelled out, they all stopped and looked toward me, "There's no point. He's gone—maybe he went to see Taichi. Point is, we need to keep moving. Standing around here on a broken down street corner is not the smartest idea we've ever had. We need to figure out what we're doing."

"If Yamato has gone after Taichi then I'm going after Taichi too." Sora said before I had even finished speaking, she was gone in seconds, running after him.

"Sora wait!" Miyako cried, hurrying after her causing DemiVeemon to fall off of her shoulder and into Hikari's arms.

"Well okay then..." Mimi sighed, "I guess we're following Taichi."

"No," Takeru said quickly, "Taichi left because of Gennai—if Gennai is coming with us we should go in two groups—we'll meet up later."

"Splitting up is stupid." Jou said, "It has always led to more problems than it's worth."

"Well what choice do we have?" Takeru asked.

"Takeru is right Jou," Koushiro agreed, "If you have a better idea, then by all means, tell us, but splitting up seems logical right now."

"I'll agree..." Jou said, looking to the ground, "But, _only_ because I've never known Koushiro to be wrong."

"Well thank you Jou!" Koushiro blushed slightly.

"Well let's decide who is going where then." Mimi said quickly, "Before Taichi and the others get too far away."

"I'll go with Taichi!" Hikari said quickly.

"No!" I said quickly. "Hikari—as annoying as Gennai is, he's your best chance of staying safe. He took your wound, defended you against Dragomon and defeated an ultimate digimon single handed—you stay here. I'll go get Taichi and bring him back to you."

She looked at me as if she wanted to complain but then she nodded. "Okay..." She looked away from me quickly.

"I'll go with you." Koushiro said quickly. "I have a cell phone so I can communicate with you Mimi, this way we can meet up easier."

Mimi looked unhappy for a moment but then smiled and nodded. She took the goggles off of her head instantly and handed them to Koushiro. "Take these then. With Taichi being grumpy, and Sora and Miyako in the state that they both are—your group is going to need a leader."

Koushiro took them nervously and nodded, "Thank you Mimi." She hugged him quickly and he awkwardly hugged her back. "I'd better get going though..."

"R-right..." She said, pulling away from him.

"Can I stay with Hikari again?" Lopmon asked.

"Oh you like her more than me now?" I joked, my eyebrows raised.

"No!" Lopmon insisted. "I just want to protect her."

"I get it." I laughed, "Sure—if Hikari is okay with it?"

"Absolutely!" She said brightly.

"Well..." I said to her. "Bye then..." I leaned in, in an attempt to hug her as Lopmon leapt off of my shoulder, but it didn't feel right, so I tried to kiss her! But it was all just very awkward so I just stepped back. "Bye Hikari..."

"Bye Willis..." She smiled.

As I walked past her I noticed Takeru watching the two of us with an expression that I couldn't read.

"I'll call you when if I decide a good place to meet up." Koushiro smiled as he put the goggles around his neck.

"Likewise." Mimi smiled before Koushiro and I turned and ran off, hurrying to catch up with the others.

_**Yuuko:**_

And so it had sent... the email to her son... the only attachment we had with our children—we'd know if they were okay or not within an hour. And that was still not the most interesting thing that had happened in that moment. A tree had literally sprouted in the backyard and had grown instantly, one of its branches punching a hole into the Izumi household. Yoshie had been upset about it—naturally—but she didn't let it on too much. She was sitting, staring intently at the computer screen as if something exciting were about to happen. I looked over my shoulder for my husband but he was gone.

"Susumu?" I said aloud, spinning around to find him. I quickly stuck my head out the door in search of him but he was not there in the hallway either. "Susumu?" I asked again, louder this time. I stepped into the kitchen and he was not there either. I noticed his shoes were missing from the front door as well. I pulled the door open sharply and yelled out "Susumu!" But he was gone.

I stared at the cracked street, wincing at the treacherous sight of the grey trees and puddles of black water littering the once pristine neighbourhood. There were still digimon floating or running around chasing the last human who was still outside. It was a woman... she ran for the nearest building and knocked helplessly on the door, the digimon advancing on her... Just as I took a step outside to help her, the door opened and she fell inside, a man dragging her in, and slamming the door to keep the digimon out.

I watched as the spider like digimon that had been chasing her retreated a little. So everyone was safe, or so I thought. As I made to turn back around I noticed the spiders scurrying toward the building once more, this time attacking the door, the walls and the windows, shattering them loudly.

I turned quickly and slammed the door, sliding to the floor. Susumu was out there... I needed to get out there and find him—save him.

Suddenly the door made a loud rapping noise and a scream escaped my lips.

"Yuuko!" I heard Yoshie call from Koushiro's bedroom. She ran out the door as I reached up and locked the door before crawling toward her. Yoshie helped me to my feet before moving toward the door and moving the curtains, peering out the window. "It's no one..." And then the door rapped again and Yoshie screamed "S-S-Spider!"

Both of us screamed for a few seconds before we let it fade and cleared our throats.

"We're grown women." I pointed out.

"That spider will not get the best of us—even though it IS the size of a motorcycle." Yoshie agreed. "Is it a digimon?"

I shrugged my shoulders but nodded, "Probably."

"What exactly are they doing here?" Yoshie asked—what was with that tree in the backyard—and the street looks awful!"

"I think Earth might be _becoming_ the digital world!" I cried out, "We need to save the—"

"No." Yoshie shook her head. "I think the worlds are becoming one."

"What?" I asked her, "What makes you think that?" it was a very quick assumption—I assumed she must have had some sort of reasoning.

"That thing on Koushiro's computer—the video... the lines!" She cried out, trying to spit out information. I remembered instantly what she was referring to and she had a point. That could very well be what was happening... it made sense, and finally Koushiro seemed so much less cryptic...

"Well what do we do?" I asked her.

"I don't know... I'm the smart one—you make the plan." Yoshie said as the door shook again.

She was right. I could do this! I had very independent children—they'd learned it from someone, and it sure wasn't Susumu—although he was being pretty independent now... I shook my head to clear my thoughts... What would Hikari do? Probably run into the heat of battle... What would Taichi do? Likely the same thing... that or eat...

"What are you thinking?" Yoshie asked me.

"Food." I responded simply without thinking.

"Well I'm out of baked goods—we'd have to bake something." Yoshie said with a polite smile.

"You should," I laughed, "I've literally cooked exploding muffins before."

We both laughed for a moment before I stopped and smiled slyly. "Bombs...?" Yoshie asked, trying to guess what I was thinking. I nodded.

"We need to use what resources we humans have... and we need to get out there and defeat those digimon—we need to save those who don't understand what's going on until Taichi, Hikari, Koushiro and the others can save the worlds."

"You think they will this time?" Yoshie asked, "It seems a lot to ask of them..."

"I never lose faith in my children." I smiled. "Now—we need to get to the greenhouse."

"The Takenouchi's greenhouse?" Yoshie asked.

"Yes—I remember exactly how to make the cupcakes. I need spices and—Susumu's secret ingredient." I smiled.

"What's that?" She asked.

"No idea—but it backs _quite_ the punch." I smiled.

"We wouldn't have to bake them into muffins then—we could just use that then could we not?" Yoshie asked.

"Yes... but muffins…they seem more fun." I said determined.

"Whatever you say boss." Yoshie said, saluting me. The door was hit once more—harder this time. "What do we do about the digimon in the meantime?"

I looked toward the kitchen and smiled at the sight of the hanging pots and pans.

"RAWWW!" I screamed, bursting through the front door only a few moments later with Yoshie on my side, both of us striking the spider digimon in the head with our utensils. "Come on Yoshie. Let's go!"

"Lead the way!" Yoshie smiled.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Arc four has begun! Yamato is our next narrator, and he'll be sharing his chapter with Mimi and Jun to give us a little more insight. What made him change his mind? Will Gennai stop being so much of a jerk? What digimon is waiting for Jun and Shuu? Find out next time! (Is this a better 'Next Time'? I'm still wary of what to do here…and it's been eighty-eight chapters I think that I've put this, between D03, How Iori Met Their Mother and D04…that's a lot of chapters…and there's only like… a lot more to go…yikes!)


	32. Progression

**Y/N: **I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. Things were confusing while writing it, we've kind of written a bunch of pieces for this arc, and it was just a matter of placing the right ones together, while sorting out some confusion about the upcoming plot. I think we've got it now. :) Anyway, review if you feel inclined, that's all for me!

**U/N:** Maaaaatttt... Matt seems to be the most underused character we have in the library of Digimon Characters. For some reason everyone else seems to be more important than him in the stories we've come up with. But I think i've found a way to actually use him thoroughly, which is cool becasue i actually REALLY like writing as him... anyway... you should all... review.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 32: Progression**

_**Yamato:**_

What the hell was I doing?

I kept glancing over my shoulders to see if the others were coming for me... I wanted them to. I wanted them to stop me because I couldn't stop myself. I knew I was making a mistake—I knew the consequences of this decision but at the same time I knew that I had to go.

It was like I was on a train track and there was only one way for me to go, and I knew that I had to either go this way or nowhere at all.

But I was scared... If going this way meant that I would end up like Kurayami and Daisuke seemed to be, then I didn't want to go at all. I did however think that it would be good for me to stick with Iori... if Ken and Michael had both fallen under that spell like the others than Iori would be there alone. Of course there was always Armadillomon—but was that enough to keep him safe? And was Iori really the reason I was going? I couldn't see any other reason to be leaving my brother as we go into battle—leaving Sora when I knew what it would mean to our relationship... now I was turning against both of them. And not only them—but Taichi too. He seemed to understand in that brief moment when we were communicating soundlessly, but I knew he wasn't happy about what I had chosen. Now I was against everyone I knew and loved... and the only reason I could think to do that was to keep Iori safe.

But also Momoe I supposed... She was important to Jou and if the others knew where she was then I needed to help them get to her, and save her. I owed it to Jou with the amount of times he'd saved Takeru while I was busy or unable to do so...

But there was also things pushing me away from the others. Just being with Sora with her ignoring my proposal for marriage as if it were just some random unimportant question... that bothered me. A lot. Did she not want to get married? Did she not want to be with me? And even worse was that goggle ordeal. When we first came to the digital world everyone relied on Taichi because he was a born leader—I was jealous then and I couldn't honestly say that it had died down—but now Sora, Miyako and even _Mimi_ were leading our group. No one thought to give the goggles to me—Not even Sora. I was always second in command... even when we were all too busy to go into the Digital World... Daisuke was the step in leader—but even so, Taichi and I led everything. If someone needed help they'd come to me—to us. And then in the previous trip to the Digital World—the one I had assumed would be the last... Taichi and I were fighting the whole time and the group was never together—but in the end it was Taichi and I who saved everything and everyone... But now I was slowly being pushed down the chain of leadership... If I was no longer second in command—no longer Taichi's right hand man—his partner, then my contribution to the group was even more miniscule than it already had been.

Was there any point in me even being there then?

No... Which was why I needed to go. I needed to find somewhere I would belong...

Gabumon was walking by my side silently. He knew even more than I did that I was choosing the wrong path—but he didn't understand that this was the _only_ path... It was seriously important, I just couldn't figure out why...

I also had _no_ idea where Kurayami was. The landscape was confusing me. As far as I could tell... it was Earth sitting on top of the Digital world—so every tree that was in the Digital World had sprouted where it would have been, corresponding to the Digital World layout. The sky was blue though—not like the Digital-Ocean World. The sun was strange though... it was white, not yellow—not orange... just white—with a strange fringe of black surrounding it... I wasn't sure where that sun had come from, but I did know that I was confused as to where to go, and that I had to be sure to avoid the puddles of dark water surrounding me.

I looked back to Gabumon, he looked just as lost as I was... or more so. I was proud to say he was my partner though... he had faith in me—he was following me to the one place he didn't want to go just to keep me company on my quest... he was amazing...

"Yamato," He said suddenly, breaking the silence, "Where... are we?"

I shrugged my shoulders instead of responding. I had _no_ idea where we were—not even just on Earth terms... I recognized some landmarks, but with the trees, and everything around I found myself more confused than ever.

"And where are all the digimon?" Gabumon asked. "If the Digital World and the Human world are now fused together, where are all the people and digimon?"

He had a point—but then again we hadn't seen many digimon when we were in the Digital World. Most of them were in the Primary Village I supposed, having passed away at some point during the war... Of course, like Elecmon had said the hatchings were backed up... Likely because Apocalymon had absorbed all of the digimon he could at the time, so when we destroyed him _every_ digimon had tried to reload at once... and the system had frozen... which suddenly made me realize that it had been Fanglongmon's plan all along—use Kurayami and Apocalymon to rid the Digital World of anyone who could fight against him... and then, making the world set up so it did not need the Digidestined anymore... there would be no one to fight against him while he took over the Digital World using the Dark Ocean... where he would team up with Dragomon...

He was using everyone... Dragomon, Kuraymi, Gennai, the digidestined and even the worlds themselves... Was there any way to defeat someone who could plan that well? Was there really a way to kill a God? I mean, we'd defeated Azulongmon and the other Sovereign... but they were nothing compared to the what Fanglongmon clearly was—that was like comparing Noah and his ark to God himself—Fanglongmon was going to be unbeatable...

So perhaps joining him was the right choice?

Not perhaps—there was no "perhaps"—No "maybe" either. This _was_ the right choice... but even with all of the reasons I kept throwing around in my mind, I couldn't seem to convince myself that it really was right—even though it was—was it? Yes!

"Yamato?" Gabumon asked, "Where are the humans?" He was repeating himself—now it looked like I was ignoring him...

"Probably hiding from all the evil Digimon all over the place." I said monotonously.

"But there are no digimon." Gabumon said, "Where are they?"

"I don't know." I said flatly.

"I'm sorry," Gabumon said.

I wanted to tell him to not be sorry, to just ignore me and my stupidity, but I said nothing.

Instead we just continued to walk in silence back the way we had come. After walking along the streets we came back to the temple which no longer looked like a temple—not that it ever really did—but it instead looked like an old building that had new branches and wings added to it recently... I knew there were digimon inside there—I knew there were Gennai's people—and I wanted desperately to go to them, to allow them to help me—to set me on the right track, but I found myself walking past them and into the woods.

The woods I found myself in were hardly anything like Earth at all. The ground was less crisp and more real than the Digital World was—and the air was much more fresh and easier to breathe, but otherwise I felt like I was in the Digital-Ocean once again.

Once again the feeling of guilt washed over me—I was abandoning _everyone_. How could I live like this? I was literally making up excuses as to why leaving them all was okay, but they were all feeble and terrible excuses. All of them were true—one hundred percent true, but even so, that was no reason to join the forces of evil...

Even last time I did this—ten years prior—I didn't turn evil. I just went on my own and decided to do whatever _I_ wanted... because what I wanted for myself was more important than the others plans for me. So this was a new low. I had beaten my record of stupidity. I should have been proud at this new mind set. But not... GOD! I couldn't even be mentally sarcastic well. I was such a failure!

_Not a failure..._

"Did you say something?" I shot to Gabumon with a heavy accent of fear.

"Me?" Gabumon asked.

"No, Santa Claus." I said, getting my sarcasm back. I shook my head and said, "Yes..."

"I didn't say anything." Gabumon said, "Why? What did you hear?"

"It was a voice... it was... familiar." I said, "But it was distant—like a far off echo." I tried to explain what I was hearing, but I had no other words to describe the voice... but maybe I had just been hearing things. It wouldn't the first time I'd heard random voices—wow I was a serious mess...

"D-do... do you... do you think it was F-Fanglongmon?" Gabumon asked nervously, looking around and fidgeting as he shuffled his feet and spun his claws around one another. He was literally scared...

"No." I said quickly, though I figured he could be right. Fanglongmon had clearly been in Kurayami's head before, and he was obviously there now—and likely in Daisuke, Ken's and the others heads as well...

Was he coming for me now? Was his deep, growling voice... _in_ my head? Was he trying to take over my mind like he had the others? But why would he even bother? I was already doing what he wanted me to do without him even being involved—or perhaps he really _was_ involved... maybe he had disguised himself as my conscience... perhaps he was the reason there was only one path—only one option for me... maybe he had made it that way so he could get me to join him... and if he'd done that for me, then who was next? Was he going to try get into anyone else's mind? Or was I the only one weak enough to be taken over?

I was the only one who was in the path to darkness—the others were all standing in the rays of the sun, perfectly safe... so I didn't really belong with them... I was literally turning against them—turning evil.

So I _was_ a failure.

_I said that you weren't a failure._

"There it is again..." I said nervously, glancing over my shoulder.

"The voice?" Gabumon asked.

I nodded slowly, "I think we need to keep moving."

"Right." Gabumon said before barring his teeth suddenly and jumping around to face behind us, morphing into Garurumon in a matter of seconds with a blinding flash of light.

"What's wrong?" I asked him quickly, hurrying toward him.

"Someone is out there..." Garurumon growled.

"You think it's Fanglongmon?" I asked him thinking it unwise to even think about standing up to the digimon who acted as a God in this world. There was no way I was going to allow him to fight him. If Fanglongmon was there then I would let him take over my mind completely if it meant keeping Garurumon safe—but a better plan was to just escape... to run away if we were given the chance.

Garurumon wasn't answering me, so just in case it really _was_ Fanglongmon I pulled myself onto his back and grabbed tufts of his mane to be safe...

He was following something with his eyes, he saw something out there—he heard something out there, and I couldn't see a thing... but as I closed my eyes to listen more closely I heard strange sounds like a wispy heart beat... it was slow and airy...

I opened my eyes and looked toward the sound and saw that it wasn't a heart beat at all—it was wings. The creature in front of us was flapping its giant violet and black bat wings, its long red cloak was hanging down low, the hood over its head was black, and it had a golden charm around its neck. I recognized the digimon immediately—but it took me a few seconds to remember his name.

Daemon.

"Digidestined..." Daemon said, his voice strangely peaceful. "Where are the others?"

"I don't know." I lied instinctively. I couldn't lead him toward Taichi, Sora, Takeru and the others.

"You're lying." Daemon said, floating slowly toward me, his amber coloured eyes glowing under his hood. As he came out of the shadows of the trees, allowing the light from the sun above us to pour onto him he spoke again, "I don't want to hurt him. I don't want to hurt your brother... Takeru will be safe—Miss Takenouchi will also be safe... Your best friend—Taichi—he'll be safe too."

"Just get to the point." I snapped, "What do you want from me?"

"I want to know where Mr Ken Ichijouji is." Daemon said, "I just want him—none of the others will be harmed."

I debated for a moment whether or not to allow him to come with me on my search for Ken and the others, but realized how awful I was being toward Ken. Because no matter how much I wanted to protect the others I had to protect Ken as well—even if he had decided to go evil... then again, that was what I had picked too... I shook my head, disagreeing with myself. I wasn't evil I was just tagging along with Fanglongmon's group of merry men... and Kurayami.

"No?" Daemon said, taking my head shaking as an answer for him.

"Correct." I agreed. "Ken is my friend and I will not allow you to harm him."

"Oh?" Daemon asked raising his hand.

"Garurumon GO!" I shouted, remembering how powerful Daemon had been in the battle at the temple... wow I'd been awake a long time... I hoped that perhaps Ken and the others were taking an evil catnap before trying to take over the world... I wouldn't mind that at all—not one bit...

Garurumon was racing through the trees, swerving quickly to avoid them. I looked over my shoulder and saw Daemon following us quickly. Where were we going to go? We couldn't fight him... Garurumon wasn't strong enough to defeat Daemon—but he was definitely fast enough to outrun him! And we would have done just that...

If we hadn't appeared in a clearing at that moment... a clearing where we were _not _alone.

"Yamato?" It was Iori who had spoken. Next to him was Armadillomon and Daisuke, Michael, Betamon and Kurayami were walking up ahead... but none of them had caught my attention. It was Ken, who was standing nearest me, holding Wormmon.

"Ken?" I asked, almost heartbroken, "Shi-!"

Daemon burst through the trees, cutting me off as he shot a blast of strange fiery substance toward Garurumon and myself. Garurumon jumped out of the way quickly and turned to face Daemon who was readying another attack when he froze and looked toward Ken.

He flew suddenly and quickly toward him, smacking Wormmon out of his arms and flying straight toward a tree where he slammed him hard against it, his long boney fingers gripping his neck tightly.

"Garurumon!" I shouted, "Stop him!" Garurumon ran toward Daemon quickly, his teeth barred, growling loudly. Ken was gasping for breath as he grabbed and clawed at Daemon's hands as Garurumon got closer. Suddenly though, Daemon dropped Ken who slid down the tree he had been being pressed against and landed in a heap on the ground as Garurumon skidded to a halt. Ken slowly pulled himself to a sitting position and looked up to Daemon who was staring at Kurayami. Everyone turned toward her.

"Leave." She said, pointing to the sky in the distance. "Leave and do not come back—ever." Her voice was dark and strict, and as I looked back to Daemon I saw that he was obeying her, flapping his large wings and taking flight, seemingly absentmindedly.

"Let's just get him—that way he really _can't _come back." I suggested.

"Right." Garurumon agreed. "Howling—"

_Enough! _It was the same voice from earlier... only if felt closer now.

Everyone in the clearing froze except for Daemon who continued to float away.

"I heard it." Garurumon said. "Is that the voice you heard earlier?"

"Mhm..." I said slowly, looking to the others. Iori, Armadillomon and Michael looked confused, just like I felt, they were looking for the voice. Wormmon, who was mumbling to himself from the ground next to me, was doing the same. Betamon was the first one that I noticed was seeing it differently. His eyes were shut tight and his fins where over the places where his ears ought to have been. I saw that Daisuke and Ken were acting the exact same—Kurayami was reacting similarly to the voice, but she had fallen to her knees and was biting her lip as if she was holding back a scream.

_You will all listen to me now._ The voice, that I was now sure to be Fanglongmon, said, _Come to the place you all know as the Camp Grounds... come see me and I will give you your next instructions._

Kurayami gasped and panted heavily for a moment before pulling herself to her feet and straightening her cloak out and dusting it off. Ken was quick to come to her side.

"So are we going?" He asked her.

"Of course we are." She shot. "You really think we'd disobey Fanglongmon?"

"You're right." Ken said, "I'm sorry."

"Let's go!" Daisuke smiled, skipping toward Kurayami, who ignored him and stepped toward me.

"What are you doing here?" She asked me as I slid off of Garurumon.

"Am I not welcome?" I asked her.

"Well how do I know you're faithful to me?" She asked, "Faithful to Fanglongmon?"

"Well I left my brother, my best friend and my girlfriend just to come here." I said in passing as Garurumon reverted back to Gabumon. She still looked unconvinced. "Look, I may not be exactly who you expected but at least I came. This is where I'm supposed to be right now, and I've got myself a very powerful digital partner, you can't really be turning me down."

"Fine." She said, spinning on the spot. "Come along everyone. Ken we shall resume our conversation now—Michael, come up here. I want to keep you safe. You're very important."

Michael smiled and hurried off toward her, Betamon following closely behind.

I picked Wormmon off the ground and looked to him, half a smile on my face.

"You're just like Ken aren't you?" He asked me.

"No... I don't think so." I admitted, though I couldn't help but think of the fact that the voice was seemingly getting closer and closer... soon perhaps I would be like Ken and the others... tainted—infected by Fanglongmon himself...

"Good..." Wormmon smiled at me. "I don't think I could stay here if everyone was like that."

I smiled at him, "Well I promise to keep you safe if Ken goes all Digimon Kaiser on this joint." Wormmon laughed a little before realizing that it was actually a possibility for him to do exactly that.

"You shouldn't have come here." Iori said from behind me. I turned to face him.

"I know..." I admitted before, him, Daisuke and I started walking with Armadillomon and Gabumon.

"This sucks." Daisuke growled. "First my digimon leaves me, then my pet turns against me, my best friend tries to steal the girl of my dreams, and she ignores me. How could this get any worse?"

"It could get worse if this is a trap." Iori said slowly.

"Do you think that... it is a trap?" Gabumon asked him.

Iori was silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes... I do."

_**Mimi:**_

Why did we always have to split up?

Okay, so sometimes good things happened to us when we did. I mean the first time I was in the Digital World I split from the group with Jou and I got a fantastic best friend out of the deal, and we healed Ogremon and got a whole big group of our digimon friends to come and help us deal with the Dark Masters.

The fact that they were practically useless, as the battle was almost over when we got there, doesn't count.

But at a time like this?

Hikari had already been injured, Sora was covered in scratches, Ken was singed…but he was also evil now, so I shouldn't care…I did though… Koushiro was hurt too, and everyone was dangerously exhausted. And I was hungry. I didn't even dare ask if the others were though.

Gennai was on a mission.

And I was not even going to bring myself to talk to him to find out if he'd planned for a few hours of sleep or even a meal on the go. I didn't know if he was like us. He didn't look like a digimon, and he didn't seem to suffer from anything as 'trivial' as fatigue or hunger, so I didn't think he was human. I didn't know what Gennai was.

That's not true.

I knew Gennai was an annoying jerk that had control problems and had no hope in success without his digidestined team that he kept trying to manipulate.

So I knew _something_ of what Gennai was…I just didn't know his species.

I missed the goggles.

I didn't regret giving them to Koushiro—he deserved them and his little ragtag team needed a leader—but I missed the sliver of respect Gennai afforded me when I had them. He seemed to think that since we were all goggle-less that meant he could be the leader like he'd wanted to from the start.

Fat chance.

The only thing I could hope for, in terms of the goggles, was for Koushiro to actually keep them and be the leader for them. I could see him giving them to Taichi right away. He categorized Taichi as a leader, and kept himself in a different category all together. The furthest from actually leading as possible, despite the fact that he provided most of the information the leader—as well as the rest of the group—actually needed.

And he could do so well if he just tried.

I supposed he just didn't want any more added pressure. He was already relied on for that information. I guessed he didn't think he could handle being responsible for everything.

I could understand that.

I didn't like being responsible for everything that happened with my mother. But I was. I had to be. She was always so supportive when I was growing up, so it had to be something I did. But I couldn't help but feel it was always her dream I was trying to achieve, instead of my own.

Cooking was fun. It made me feel like I was accomplishing something. I could express my every mood through the different courses of the meal. It was in the kitchen that I felt the most at home, free from every trivial worry and away from the drama caused by my theatrical friends. It was my own little heaven on Earth.

And mom always enjoyed eating the big meals I made. She didn't like my experimenting one iota, but my traditional cooking she loved. So why couldn't she see that _this_ was what I was good at, _this_ is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Koushiro supported me entirely. My friends stood behind me without even a second thought. But my mother, my own _mother_ couldn't understand that a stable, believable job was the better option for me. Usually parents were trying to talk their children out of acting…

But I was glad that I disregarded my mother's wishes. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been in Japan, and wouldn't have been able to help in this crisis…

Though if Gennai didn't stop being such an annoying jerk-face, I might've started to rethink that notion.

"How much further now?" came Gennai's call. He was being so sour about us all ignoring him. Couldn't he see that being nicer to us would make us actually like him again?

"Not too long," Hikari said. "See, just down the street. There's the mountain… It must have grown into the park."

"Aw man," Takeru groaned. "I loved that park."

"Then you shouldn't have allowed the worlds to merge," Gennai said simply.

"Don't worry Takeru," Patamon said before I could start yelling at Gennai again. "I'm sure when we deal with everything the park will come back."

"And if not, you've got one heck of a hill to slide down in the winter," Gomamon joked.

Everyone aside from Jou and Gennai laughed at that one.

I was so tired. Nearly everything sounded hilarious. Except the fact that Momoe and Iori's little friends could, you know, be dead. That was _not_ funny sounding. It just made me feel even more tired, thinking of the long journey we would take to get to them and then the fighting that would have to happen after. Then we'd have to figure out a way to separate the worlds…if you know, defeating _Fanglongmon_ wasn't difficult enough.

I needed a nap. Or a winter-long hibernation. Either one sounded fantastic.

"Mimi," Jou said, bumping into me with his shoulder. "Wake up. We're at the Temple."

"What?" I asked groggily. "How did that even happen?"

I could have sworn we were still at least a block away.

"That's what happens when you're dead on your feet," Takeru said with a laugh. Then he added in wonderment "Two straight days…"

"And we're working on the second night," Hikari said. "Probably will have at least another day to go."

"If we can last that long," I grumbled.

"Oh, I am in my element," Jou joked. "I knew those sleepless _years_ in school would come in handy some day."

"But the worry will wear you down," Otamamon said cheerfully. "So you won't feel left out."

Jou's tentative smile fell off his face.

Damn that tadpole. But he was too adorable to stay mad at…

"We'll find her Jou. Tonight maybe," I said. "We'll just have to find someone who knows where to go. We're lost. We need some sort of instructions as to what to do. We've been wandering in circles all day."

"I just so happen to have the instructions you seek," came a voice behind me.

I turned to see Gennai smiling happily at me.

"If you knew where to go Jerk-nai," I said slipping back into old name for him. My gratitude for saving my life could only last so long. And he was _such_ a jerk. "Why didn't you lead us there instead of making us split up with your stupidity?"

"I am Benjamin, actually," he said warily. He turned to look at…well, _Gennai_, raising his eyebrow at him. "I see there is much to tell."

"Later," Jou said. "Tell us where Momoe is."

"Yes," Benjamin said. "We'll tell our tales later, when the worlds are safe once more. The ones that were stolen were taken to Fanglongmon's lair. It is quite a ways away from here, at least forty kilometres. You will have a long walk ahead of you. It has emerged in an Earth location on Pine Valley Road, South-East of here."

"Pine Valley?" Takeru asked with wide eyes.

The name struck a chord with me, but I couldn't remember what it was.

"Yes," Benjamin said. "I suggest a digivolution. You will cover much more ground that way."

"We'll cover much more ground with a motorized vehicle," I told him.

"Yes," he said surprised. "I suppose you do have those in abundance here."

"We do," I agreed. Jou had a car that I knew of, and Koushiro had taken his mother's. Yamato had a bike…but he wasn't here to have the keys anyway. I didn't have one personally. I hadn't been here long enough to warrant getting a license in Japan just yet, and there was no point in getting a car without one. Hikari had been sick pretty much right after she reached the age in which getting a license was even possible, so I doubted she could drive. Takeru, I thought, just bummed rides off of his mother or brother.

"We don't have one," I sighed.

"What do you mean?" Takeru asked. "There are loads of cars. We have to be able to get access to one of them."

"Are you asking me to hotwire a car?" I asked him. "Do I look like I can do that?"

"…yes?" he said.

"No," I told him. "I don't even know how. What about a taxi?"

"I don't think the taxi's are in service," Jou said sardonically, pointing to the nearest taxi car…whose front end was wrapped around a pine tree in the middle of the road.

"A bus?" I asked grasping at straws.

"I might know where to find one," Takeru commented. "But I have a feeling it'll be where we're headed anyway."

"Too bad we left our cars at the camp, huh?" Hikari said. "It would be much easier."

"Stop wasting time arguing about transportation," Gennai said in a rather whiny voice.

"Yeah, I can be our transportation," Gomamon said.

"No you can't," Jou argued. "For you to get any speed you have to be in water, and I'm not letting you anywhere near that stuff."

"We have to do something," Gomamon said.

"I can't help much," Patamon said.

"I can't help at all," Otamamon complained.

"We're scooped," I cried. Almost literally. "We'll have to walk forty kilometres. I can't make it that far!"

"Buck up, Mimi," Jou said in a sort of major-general kind of way. "We've got to do this. Think of Momoe, think of the baby, think of Palmon, who is waiting out there _somewhere_ for you to find her."

I swiped the few tears that had formed away, and stood up as tall as I could.

"Let's do this," I said confidently.

"Could I come?"

"Meiyomon?" Jou asked. "Where the hell have you been? Iori went evil without you."

"Iori could never be evil," Meiyomon argued. "He's got too much honour for that. He can't even lie without feeling guilty."

"Well, he turned his back on all of us," I said. "He didn't even tell me he was doing it either. He just told Jou and Takeru that he needed to do this and that was that. Even Hikari didn't make it on the list of people important enough to know."

"But he has sworn to always protect her," Meiyomon said tilting his head.

This was new to me, but I could see the little guy being a rockin' bodyguard.

"Why did you leave?" Hikari repeated Jou's earlier question.

"I had to take care of my brothers and sisters. They needed to be some place safe," he said. "I have to watch over them. But I cannot take them with me on this new journey of ours."

"I shall watch over them," Benjamin said thoughtfully. Gennai really ought to be like him. He was precious. "Will I be watching over young Hikari as well?"

"No," Hikari said, just as Gennai and Takeru said "Yes."

"Takeru," Hikari gasped.

"Fanglongmon's after you," he said. "I don't want him to get to you. If he could break Iori…"

"I'll be fine," she said. "Besides, if you leave me here, I'll be forced to go all alone. Isn't it safer to travel together?"

She drove a hard bargain. She was a clever little girl. I admired her greatly at that moment.

"After all," she said. "I have to save Nyaromon no matter what."

And in order to right the world, I'd have to do the same for our 'stolen' girls.

_**Jun:**_

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't.

I had to go from being chased by some digimon man that was literally on fire to being locked in an old professor's office with an even bigger horse-man digimon. And then the world started shaking and it was absolutely terrifying. I'd been screaming because of the horse-man and then I was screaming because of the earth shaking and the sky changing from a dark blue and pink from the sunset to this hideous shade of grey, that really didn't tell me what time it was at all. And the guy that was on fire still wanted to get into the school.

"Why can't it just be normal?" I asked in exasperation.

"Because normal is relative," Shuu answered, without thought, as he and Mr Takenouchi were talking about some sort of lore or whatever with the horse-man. It was just an automatic response. It was depressing really.

"It is because of the imbalances the Digital World faces," the horse-man said. I sighed. That meant I would have to actually acknowledge that he was really there and not just a figment of my imagination.

"I thought the Digital World was part of a computer or something," I told him. Otamamon had told me as such at some point in time. I didn't know if it was accurate—Otamamon often just spoke to hear his own voice, though I do too, so I can't complain—but it was all I had to go on. Daisuke never told me anything. He was so annoying. I had a digimon now, but I still wasn't a 'digi-destined' so that meant I wasn't allowed to know or something.

"It is very similar," the horse-man said. "It is compromised of digital data, just as I am. And just, I suspect, as you are now."

"What?" I gasped.

The idea of my body being changed into computer data without my knowledge freaked me out. It was my body, what was the world thinking exchanging its DNA for digital composition?

"Jun," Shuu said, grasping my hand. He gave it a little squeeze, and I relaxed. "It's going to be fine. Haven't you been listening to a word Centaurumon has said?"

So his name was Centaurumon…

"I've been a tad frazzled to be honest," I told him sheepishly.

"He said some digital group of monks from a place known as The Temple were working on it. They're like digital superheroes. The world'll be fine," he told me.

"And my brother?" I asked. "Will he be fine too?"

"He's a digidestined?" asked the horse-man…Centaurumon I supposed.

"Yes," I told him. "And he's got Otamamon too. Will Otamamon be able to protect him any?"

"An Otamamon?" Centaurumon asked. "A rookie will do little damage to the foes the digidestined face."

"He's _my_ Otamamon," I told him. "He calls me his partner. I have no idea what he's talking about, but I…need to know that they'll be okay."

"I cannot assure you of anything," he said grimly. "For nothing has been set in stone. Good has always triumphed over evil in the past, but it is the knowledge that the evil _could_ win that gives those that are good the drive they need to succeed. There will _always_ be a chance that the darkness could prevail."

Not exactly the heart warming reassurance I was hoping for. He was my little brother. Nothing bad was supposed to happen to him. It was my job to protect him. That's the duty of the older sibling. And Shuu's little brother was out there somewhere too.

I had to hope they knew what they were doing. There was nothing else I could do.

I heard the fire-man slam against another door, trying to get it to open. Sooner or later, he'd find his way to us. I could only hope that Centaurumon was stronger than him, because _I _sure wasn't. I was highly flammable. I wore a lot of hairspray in my hair. I didn't want that guy anywhere near me.

Something burst through the wall, surrounded by a bright, white light.

I screamed my fool head off at it.

Shuu and Mr Takenouchi jumped out of their seats, running at me—the chosen target of the bright, white light. I prayed to God that it wasn't a form of fire that would light me up like a Christmas tree.

But it wasn't.

It was a small grey device that was hovering in front of me. I was immediately taken in by the strange device. My arm started reaching out on its own accord, and I touched the device with just one finger. The light disappeared and the device fell to the floor.

"Oops," I said shakily, trying to laugh.

"What is it?" asked Shuu. "I think I've seen it before."

"Me too," Mr Takenouchi said. "Sora had one."

"Daisuke has one," I said, suddenly remembering. "He carries it with him always."

"Must've been Jou then, that I saw it with" Shuu decided.

"Correct," Centaurumon said. "It is a digivice, and it has found you, as your digimon has claimed you as a partner."

"Otamamon gave me this?" I asked in awe.

"No," Centaurumon said. "The Digital World did, when Otamamon declared you worthy of one."

"Wow," I said with a cheesy grin on my face. "Wait'll Daisuke sees this!"

"Haruhiko," Centaurumon said in a solemn voice. I could wait to do a happy dance. This seemed to be an important moment, and I figured I ought to behave. "I have waited a long time to find a human partner, and I do believe I have finally found mine…in you."

"Me?" he asked. "What did I do to deserve the honour?"

"We will find out together," Centaurumon declared. "It is a feeling I have."

"Do I get one of those—" his sentence was cut off by another bright light shooting through the wall at a different point. His very own digivice was hovering before him. "I guess that answers that question."

"I wonder if I'll get one," Shuu asked. He didn't sound jealous or disappointed, merely curious. He was always curious. It was one of the things I admired about him. Well, I admired everything about him. He was wonderful.

But I digress.

"Every digimon is waiting, just as I was," Centaurumon said. "You may yet find one that find's its partner in you."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** The digidestined are now more broken than ever before. Taichi is struggling to find his place now that he's no longer the only leader, and Sora is trying desperately to understand Yamato's decision, all while helping Miyako with problems of her own. Tatum is also trying very hard to find Michael, and help if she can...but with the way things are going, will any of them succeed?


	33. Division

**Y/N: **It's here! And I was Taichi…again. Hope you enjoy it!

**U/N:** Uhm... this is late because my sister for some reason failed at putting it up. but i'm home now so i'm going to push that the next one go up tomorrow (it's actual assigned upload date) and then yeah... anyway, review, happy day, yadda yadda, eat your vegetables.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 33: Division**

_**Sora:**_

"Sora!" Miyako called behind me, "Slow down!" She'd been asking me to do just that for a while but I hadn't planned on doing so... but I was running out of energy searching for Taichi and Yamato.

So I stopped, slowed to a stop and waited for her to catch up while I caught my breath. "Why are you coming?" I asked her

"Because there's nothing waiting for me back there." Miyako said with a sigh. "I need to move on and follow my instincts. And when you ran away... I just... followed."

"I noticed." I told her.

"Well I just... I need to find where life is going to take me now without Ken." Miyako said. She was smiling though I knew it was fake or forced, trying to convince me that she was suddenly over Ken, but she wasn't. There was no way. I could relate...

"Ken is coming back though Miyako." I told her. "Just because he's chosen to follow Kurayami right now doesn't mean that he has decided never to change his mind. If he did it once, he can do it again." She shook her head, and took a breath as she motioned for us to keep moving to look for Taichi and Yamato.

"He isn't coming back." Miyako said. "Not to me. And if he does, what am I supposed to do? Ignore the fact that his mind is weak enough to turn against me? And it's just like you said, if his mind can change once, then he can do it again—he's chosen darkness twice now, this time he had a lot to lose, his friends, his reputation, me—everything. And he still chose darkness. Can I really allow that in my life? I mean—I love him... but... he broke my heart... and he can't just come back and fix it."

"Ken didn't break your heart." I told her, "Fanglongmon did. If we can defeat Fanglongmon then Ken's mind will go back to how it was last week." I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she shrugged it off, she was already dismissing the help.

"And how can I trust that he won't leave me again after some other evil digimon comes along?" Miyako asked, "Look, let's just stop talking about it right now... I need to think a bit."

"You're right..." I said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry." Miyako smiled. "Let's stop worrying about my love life and help yours. Let's find Yamato."

I smiled at her, "Thank you..." I said.

As we walked I noticed that the world around us was so... strange—the world was practically destroyed... it looked exactly as the apocalypse had always looked in my mind just without the floods and fires... but if this was the apocalypse... why weren't we working harder to fix it? Searching for Yamato to keep my relationship going was the least of my worries right now. I needed to forget about that until this mission was over—and if we failed and the worlds destruction was imminent, then I would start worrying about my relationship again.

"Where could he have gone?" Miyako asked.

"I don't know..." I admitted. I'd followed the street he had gone, but I must have turned the wrong way somewhere along the line because I had been running and I was fairly positive that Taichi had just been walking... I should have caught up to him by then.

"Well let's just get going." Miyako said smiling. I nodded and the two of us did just that, heading down the streets to look for Taichi and the others.

Suddenly I saw him.

"Gabumon." I smiled, running off after the figure that I had seen turn the corner just up ahead.

"Sora wait!" Miyako sighed as she set off, running after me. I didn't wait though, if that was Gabumon then Yamato was nearby—I needed him back—I just needed to be sure he was okay... to be sure he was still with us—with me...

I almost fell to the ground as I shot around the corner, but I managed to keep my balance and ran off after them. The figure had already run a fair way down the street so I couldn't see it very clearly... but as I got closer I couldn't help but smile, it was Yamato! It had to be—it looked just like him—but then where had Gabumon gone to? Where was Taichi and Agumon?

No matter—this was Yamato and I knew it!

"Yamato!" I called out. He turned toward me a look of confusion on his face... but it was him! No stand-in, no look-alike, no body double—this was Yamato! I practically tackled him to the ground when I threw my arms around him.

"Sora?" He asked. His voice was raspy, I wasn't sure why but I couldn't really care...

"Yamato!" I cried out, hugging him tighter, clenching my eyes shut to avoid crying. "I've been so afraid that you went back to be with Kurayami and the others! I was so scared that you'd left us all! I'm so happy that you're still here."

"So...ra?" Miyako asked from behind me.

"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you..." I said to him, ignoring Miyako.

"Sora!" She said again, this time with much more urgency in her voice.

"What?" I asked her, releasing Yamato and looking toward her.

She pointed behind me, her eyes wide. I looked back quickly and gasped. Where Yamato had been standing was a ten foot tall cloaked, oily figure with beady red eyes, staring down at us. The exact same creature that had attacked us in the forest when we had got our digivices back—but it certainly wasn't Yamato. I had been so sure that it was him too! I had thought that he was still here—that he had come back for me—but that didn't matter—there was still a chance that he was with Taichi.

But more importantly there was a very powerful minion of Dragomon standing right in front of me in midday. We'd been told that they were only able to come out during the night—but perhaps that was different now? Perhaps having Earth fused with the Digital World had offset some sort of balance? Either way I had to run.

Miyako reached toward me and grabbed my arm, pulling me toward her and away from the creature as we set off at a run. I had hoped that with all of the turns and short cuts we were taking we would have lost the creature, but every time I looked over my shoulder, there he was.

He wasn't even moving quickly. He was just walking after us taking long strides across the smooth paved roads, but still he was keeping up. I felt as if I were in some sort of horror movie, or nightmare where no matter how fast or how long you run you never get away...

Which wasn't a fun thought. I really did want to get away from him, but we had no digimon to help us...

"Sora!" Miyako said suddenly, grabbing my arm and dragging me down another alleyway sharply. She was running as fast as she could now to get to the end of it, I wasn't sure what was so important right then but I didn't argue—if she had a plan I would be happy to help her out. There was a large tree branch stuck between the two buildings that we were running between, so MIyako leapt over it with ease, practically dragging me over top of it.

When we reached the other end of the alley Miyako pushed me as hard as she could away from her, causing me to fall. I raised my eyebrow at her and shook my head as I pulled myself to my feet. "Stay back." She insisted. So I did. I stayed out of the way of the alley, as did Miyako—one on either side. When I looked back to her she was pointing to her digivice and suddenly I knew what was going on.

I quickly pulled my digivice out and waited for Miyako to give me the thumbs up. She peered around the corner and jumped back. "He's close..." She said, "Three... Two... One... GO!" She screamed as both of us jumped from our hiding places and shone our digivices toward the creature.

Only... he wasn't there.

We both lowered our digivices slowly, confused. Had he given up in trying to chase us?

But then something tapped my shoulder and judging by the jump Miyako did, I could safely assume something had done the same to her. We turned around quickly and there he was. Standing tall and looming over us. He grabbed both of our wrists and pulled up, lifting us into the air.

"Put us _down_!" Miyako growled at him as she tried to get a hold on her digivice.

I realized that I still had mine in my hand so I held it up quickly, but before I could use it the creature shook me quickly and my digivice fell from my hands.

I needed to get out of this situation. I needed to prove to myself that I was right to be a digidestined—if I couldn't even avoid one... whatever it was... then why was I summoned to be digidestined? I used both of my hands to try and free myself, but his fingers were holding d tightly. I tried kicking him, but nothing worked—he wouldn't let go.

"Nova Blast!"

I heard a familiar roaring sound as everything began to heat up. The creature released us both instantly and with a swish of his cloak he had disappeared.

From the ground, on my knees, where I had landed I looked toward the sound and smiled. Taichi was standing next to a tall orange dinosaur known as Greymon.

"You two alright?" He asked.

"We're f-fine..." Miyako nodded as she pulled herself to her feet. I followed suit as Miyako rushed toward Taichi. "Where were you?" She asked him.

"I was just walking." Taichi admitted with a half-hearted grin. "I was searching for—" He stopped when he noticed me sitting there. "Food...?"

"Yamato..." I filled in. "You were looking for Yamato weren't you? He's not here is he?"

Taichi shook his head.

I bit my bottom lip and nodded. "Okay... that's fine." I lied, forcing myself to walk toward Miyako and Taichi. I felt like my heart had literally shattered into a million pieces, and those million pieces were breaking even more with the look Taichi was giving me. "So what do we do?" I asked them.

Taichi shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea to be honest. I've just been going wherever. But Yamato's made his decision. He was wrong though... He left some awesome people—and an amazing girlfrie—"

"Taichi," I said, cutting him off, "I get that you're trying to help... but I don't really want to think about Yamato... what's your point?"

"My point is," He said, glancing toward me, an apologetic look on his face. I could tell he was thinking about the time three years ago on that Cliffside where Taichi himself had walked off on me. Leaving me behind, resulting in our break up... and now that's exactly what I was thinking of... if Taichi and I hadn't worked out after he walked off, what would be holding Yamato and I together? "We should stop looking for Yamato—both of us, and start looking for Fanglongmon—or something that will at least help us save the world. We've got quite the to-do list and I haven't slept in two days now."

"Its night time." I said slowly, looking up at the sky.

"Well spotted..." Miyako said before realizing what I meant, "What the heck is the sun doing out then?"

"Who knows?" Taichi said, waving his hand as if it didn't matter, "It's probably just the worlds being stupid and fighting over what time of day it is, point being... we know it's night time now, and we need to find the others."

"But if the sunlight doesn't hurt those shadow creatures..." Miyako said slowly.

"Then neither will our digivices." I concluded, "And how are we supposed to beat them? Or Dragomon for that matter?"

"We'll figure all that out in time I'm sure." Taichi said, "Let's just go."

"Okay!" Miyako and I said. Taichi was clearly in a hurry to finish this saving the world business... which meant there was something he wanted to do... the look on his face implied that he was keeping it a secret which meant that it couldn't be that he just wanted to sleep... perhaps there was someone he missed? His mother perhaps? No... it was that girl! What was her name...?

"Rei!" I called out.

"Hm...?" Taichi asked, turning away from me and motioning for Greymon to follow him.

"You want to see Rei!" I said smiling, "You like Rei, don't you?"

"No..." Taichi said, turning to make eye contact with me. "She's just my friend." He said it so seriously, with actual force... it was impossible to tell if he was lying or not, so I'd have to take his word for it.

As we walked on in silence I wondered where exactly Taichi was leading us if he didn't even know where to go himself, but as none of us were wearing the goggles, Taichi I supposed was the automatic leader of the three of us.

"Do you hear that?" Miyako asked.

"What?" Taichi and I asked.

"I hear it too..." Greymon agreed.

"What?" Taichi and I repeated.

"Shhh!" Miyako held her finger to her lips. "Something is coming..."

We all spun around quickly as the noise came closer and louder, finally allowing Taichi and I to hear it.

It was wings. Something was flying above us and swooping down quickly.

"Can we never catch a break?" Miyako cried out as we all started running, leaving Greymon to fend off the attacker.

"Nova Blast!" He roared out.

"Electro Shocker!"

"STOP FIGHTING!" it was a human voice that screamed the command. We stopped running and looked back to see Koushiro, Willis and Terriermon sitting on the back of Kabuterimon.

"Koushiro!" Miyako cheered excitedly, running toward them, "Willis!" She stopped in front of Kabuterimon as he shifted back to Tentomon, leaving his passengers on the ground. "Do either of you know where we're going?"

Willis shook his head. But Koushiro looked like he wanted to say something important before shaking his head with Willis. Miyako crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at him.

"Okay, I don't know _yet_." He said. "I think I know how to figure it out though... you just have to give me some time." He looked very upset that he couldn't figure it out yet, I knew how upset he got whenever he didn't know the answer to something.

Taichi was giving Koushiro a strong glare filled with resentment. "So... you've got the goggles now?" He asked, "And you're not even wearing them right..."

"Sorry..." Koushiro said quietly. "I guess it was just my turn."

"Well if we don't know where we're going let's just keep going wherever." Taichi said, ignoring Koushiro, "I think Yamato needs his butt whooped, and I plan to be the one to make that happen."

I felt a pang in my chest, my heart, when he spoke of Yamato... I knew this was going to be hard for me to handle... Was this really the end for Yamato and I? And whether it was or wasn't, why was I acting so crazy? I didn't feel like myself which I knew was partly because I was very tired, but I also knew that crying and hugging Yamato while seeing him wasn't me. And I knew it had to do with my crest—I had been so confused, once again about love... how was I to make sense of my crest if nothing in my life implied love even existed? I always thought my crest was the most straightforward of them all—love was everywhere—but perhaps it wasn't...

"Sora?" Taichi asked, pulling me from my musings, "Are you coming?" I turned to see him, Miyako, Koushiro, Willis, Terriermon, Tentomon and Greymon, all waiting for me.

"No." I said without even thinking, but as I said it I knew that was what I meant.

"What do you mean?" Willis asked quickly.

"You have to come." Taichi insisted. "It's not safe—what if that shadow creature comes again." I knew he was right, I knew it wasn't safe, and I had to admit, it felt nice to have Taichi care for me... so I knew friendship was real at least... but still love seemed so distant.

"I know I should come with you." I said, "but I need time to think."

"You can think with us." Taichi said.

"We can have a therapy session!" Terriermon giggled.

"I'm going..." I said.

"I'll go with you." Miyako said. "We'll think together! And we'll be safer together too."

"Safer than going alone?" Taichi asked, "Maybe. But you were both in a pretty rough situation when I found you before—I don't want you to get hurt." I could tell he was saying it directly to me even though he was saying it to both of us. I smiled warmly at him.

"Well then she's going to need some help." Koushiro smiled.

"Oh, don't tell me you're going with them too?" Taichi sighed.

"No." Koushiro said, "But I want Tentomon to."

"Oh really?" Tentomon asked.

"Yeah." Koushiro smiled, "You'll be Sora's... temporary digimon until we meet up again. I just want her to be safe."

"And what am I?" Miyako asked, "Chop Liver?"

"Also keep Miyako safe." Koushiro added with a chuckle.

"Thank you." Miyako smirked.

"So you're really doing this?" Taichi asked as Tentomon flew toward me and landed by my feet.

I nodded, "I hope you understand..."

"I do..." He admitted. "Everyone else has gone on little side quests. It's always made them a better person. I don't know how much more awesome you can get Sora, but I can't wait for you to come back and show me."

It felt really odd having Taichi be so nice to me, because lately he'd only been making sarcastic remarks about the demon me that had attacked him in Apocalymon's spell, but I found myself smiling nonetheless.

"Thanks Taichi..." I said with a grin.

"And besides." Taichi said as everyone turned to go, waving. "If any demons show up you'll just have to show them how a real demon works."

I laughed as he waved farewell to me, turning to go and leading the way for the others toward wherever it was they were going. I could relate to that. Now that I was alone with Miyako and Tentomon I had no idea where to go... but I didn't care... I just needed to think. And having Taichi acting as my friend again reminded me of when we were younger... and suddenly us breaking up, not talking, and demon-me attacking him was just a few of those raindrops he'd mentioned in that email so long ago. "Stupid Tai..."

_**Taichi:**_

I could say I was thrilled by my new-found group, but I'd be lying, at least a little. Willis was…an okay guy I supposed, but with the way things with my sister were developing, I did not know what to think of him. She thought the world of him, or something, and so I was obligated to think he was worthless scum, wasn't I?

And Koushiro…

He had my goggles. It was one thing with the girls passing them between themselves. I figured they were going for proving females were just as capable, and I was all for that. They did alright. None of their personalities really catered to being leaders, but they made some good solid decisions. But now this was just rude. They were just passing my goggles around, looking for a leader that was capable of being a true leader. A leader that wasn't me.

And he couldn't even be bothered to wear the damn things properly.

"I didn't ask for them, Taichi," Koushiro said with a sigh. He must've caught me staring at them again.

"So you could just give them back," I told him. "They _do_ belong to me."

"Actually, seven years ago, you gave that ownership to Daisuke," he reminded me.

"Well, he didn't deserve them so I want them back," I said grumpily.

"Mimi gave them to me," he said simply. "I'm not giving them away until I actually use them for something."

"You're just going to keep them because _Mimi_ gave them to you?" I asked with one eyebrow raised.

He spluttered and turned bright red. "That's not what I implied!"

"It's still true," Willis said with a laugh.

"And I questioned whether the two of you really needed a leader," Koushiro muttered. "You're a bunch of children."

"Can I have a turn with the goggles?" Terriermon asked with a grin.

"Oh me too!" Agumon chimed in, only to receive a well deserved glare from myself.

"Neither of you are getting the goggles," Koushiro said, fiddling with them around his neck. They were supposed to be on his head, how could he just ignore their purpose like that? "Now, if you could all be quiet, I need to find someplace to sit down."

"Tired of being the leader already?" I asked hopeful. "You could just pass it off to me, to ease the burden."

"Why do you suddenly want to be the leader again?" Willis asked.

"It's just not fair," I complained. "Everyone listens to me anyway. This is just a pointless game Sora started."

"If it's pointless," Willis said. "You won't mind if I'm next."

I would mind. I would mind very much. But I didn't tell him so.

"Not at all," I told him through clenched teeth.

"Aren't you kind," he mocked.

Koushiro dropped to the ground suddenly, leaning against the nearest tree. Willis and I shared a look—wondering if he passed out or meant to do that—while Koushiro pulled open his laptop. At least I knew he hadn't gone and passed out on us.

"What're you doing?" Agumon asked him.

"Working," he said absentmindedly. "Please refrain from speaking to me; I won't hear you and I'll feel rude."

"Okay," Agumon said happily, not noticing the blunt rudeness in that statement. He sat down beside Koushiro and watched as his fingers flew over the keyboard. I noticed he was only using the one hand. I'd have to ask him about that. It seemed his shoulder injury was not getting any better. Terriermon decided it must be absolutely fascinating work, as they clambered over to watch as well.

There was no room for me to watch, even if I wanted to. But I didn't. It would probably be very boring anyway…

"Hikari and I kissed," Willis announced suddenly.

"What?" I asked in shock. Why would he just say something like that?

"I thought you should know," he told me. "I didn't want you to be the last one to know. In case you wanted to, you know, 'talk' to me or something. I figured it would be best to leave Hikari out of this. She'd feel very embarrassed if you 'talked' to her about it."

I could not understand why he kept emphasizing 'talk', as though there were quotation marks around it. What was I supposed to do? Beat him up? Yell at Hikari until she dropped him like a sack of potatoes? Hikari was eighteen years old. I loved her and watched out for her, and would gladly hurt him if he hurt her, but I couldn't decide what she did in her social life. I could just try and warn her away from scumbags.

And as much as it disappointed me, Willis wasn't exactly a scumbag. He was, as I said, a decent guy. Which sucked, you know, for me. He was Hikari's first…whatever it was that he was. I'd have liked to be able to talk him down, keep him from trying anything, but he'd already proved worthy enough when he kept Hikari safe by bringing her to the Temple, and then by coming and fetching us when she asked for backup.

I really kind of hoped I'd be able to intimidate him at the very least. But he was politely asking me to do just that. It was maddening.

"So, uh," I said lamely. "Are you dating then?"

"I don't know," he said. "We're in a life or death situation right now, with the fate of the world resting on our shoulders. It's a bit complicated at the moment."

"Yeah, I can, uh, see that," I said. He was really making it hard for me to get through this stupid and awkward conversation. Wasn't he supposed to want to avoid these things?

"I just wondered how you would feel about a relationship should one…arise," he said, sticking his hands in his pocket. How was he so at ease?

"I don't know," I said. "I've never dealt with this before. I, uh, well…I always thought it'd be Takeru to be honest, and that I wouldn't have to do…_this_ at all, so I couldn't tell you."

"Takeru?" Willis asked. "Really? He doesn't even act like he likes her. I mean, sure, he seemed to hate me for years, but he'd fine with me now. So I doubt that was it. He started acting friendly when Hikari and I started…getting closer."

Getting closer? Why did those words make my skin crawl?

"We'll just not talk about that," I told him. "It'll be easier."

"Okay," he said. "So you're not going to scare me into submission?"

"Do I need to?" I asked, eyebrow raised.

"Not really," he admitted.

"Then I'm not going to," I told him.

"Hey guys," Koushiro interrupted. "As nice as your conversation is, we've got more pressing matters to attend to."

"More important than my sister's future?" I asked.

"How about a means in which to ensure that future happens?" he countered.

"Sounds important," I said rushing over to his side, sort of pushing Agumon out of the way. I looked at the computer screen, and all I saw was some sort of topographic map—which was odd, because I didn't think would even remember what a topographic map was. "What am I looking at here?"

"This is a layout in which I've placed a map of the Digital World over top of a map of Earth. I've allowed for certain inconsistencies, as the Dark Ocean is also included despite my not having a map of it, but this should be a working map of the combination of the worlds that we are now in," he said proudly.

"Great," Willis said, slipping Terriermon. "But how exactly is this ensuring we've got futures to go on to?"

"Ah, this here," he said pointing to a large black circle. "This is where my research and information place Fanglongmon's lair. In accordance to Earth, this is the—"

"Pine Valley," I said interrupting him. "That's the camp grounds. Fanglongmon took over camp?"

"It's a good thing they evacuated when they did," Willis said.

"Yeah," I agreed letting the shock settle into my system. Goosebumps were scattering my arms. Fanglongmon's lair was the Digital World's corresponding location to our old summer camp? Why did that seem so wrong?

"Yes, well," Koushiro said. I could tell he was a little put out that I'd stolen his thunder. He'd done all the work and I took it from him. Well, he could just give me back my goggles if he wanted to be sour about it. It was really annoying that he even had them to begin with.

"So, we're going to head on over to the camp grounds?" I asked.

"I suppose—" Koushiro started, before his computer made a strange sort of "Ping" noise. "Who… Only _I_ have access to my home computer. And I've only told Jou and my mother about the program."

"Speak with understandable sentences," I told him.

"My mother," he decided. "I'll just have to see this… What could she have needed?"

"Or not," I sighed.

"He's got an email from his mom, kinda," Agumon told me.

"It's a word document dummy," Terriermon told him.

"I said _kinda_," Agumon argued.

"What does it say?" I asked dissipating the argument before craning my neck to see the document.

_Koushiro, baby, its mom. Where are you? Are you alright? You better be. Contact me! I need to know. Are the Yagami kids with you? Yuuko wants to know if they're alright too. Find me if you can. Love mom._

"Nice to know she cares about the rest of us," Willis commented wryly.

_**Tatum:**_

After we had been kicked out of the Airport my thoughts immediately went to Michael's father, and after a short drive and a simple question or two we were in the air in his private jet on our way to Japan.

It wasn't the first time I'd been in the jet, but it was certainly the first time I'd been in it without Michael. His father was a very kind man, but he was also very loud and nosey, so I was glad that Mary was there to talk to him for a change. I was sick of both of them at the moment. I was trying to dramatically look out the window as I flew toward Michael, the love of my life, to get back together with him after a couple weeks hiatus of our relationship.

As I was staring out the window though, I noticed that everything was different... the water still looked blue, and the clouds were still fluffy and white, but there was something off about it all.

"Are we almost there?" I heard Mary ask loudly from up in the cabin. The door was open wide so I could see the two of them in there as I sat by myself a few seats back.

"Nearly my dear!" Mr Washington laughed heartily. "Only an hour more!"

"Oh wonderful!" She cheered, clapping her hands together.

I didn't question how he had managed to do it all so fast, and instead just accepted the fact that it, along with most other things Mr Washington did or said, didn't make any sense. I then returned to staring dramatically out the window and screamed as I did so. There was a large blimp in the distance, but it was no ordinary blimp...

"What's wrong?" Mr Washington asked.

I pointed with a shaky finger out the window toward the blimp which was now advancing on us.

"What is that?" Mrs Kennedy asked, looking out the window.

"It's just a friendly blimp!" Mr Washington said playfully.

"No!" I said loudly, "It's not! Trust me!" Mary laughed but Mr Washington nodded at me.

"What is it then Tatum dear?" He asked, worried.

"It's name is Brimpmon." I told them. There was no mistaking that fact. I had spent extensive time with my partner Monodramon in the digital world researching other digimon... it's what I found interesting. During my time apart from acting with Michael I had enjoyed learning about the digimon and I knew who that was. It was Brimpmon and he was _not_ a friendly creature. And not only did I find it interesting, but Monordramon also found it interesting... it was a way for us to bond which was hard to do... my partner couldn't speak... but he enjoyed watching me drawing and writing down my findings. "We need to get away from him." I said flatly, jumping up from my seat.

"I can't just—" Mr Washington tried.

He was cut off though, but a very loud and echoing voice. "Helium Bomb!" I didn't even have to see myself to know that all the colour had drained instantly.

"Shi—" Mr Washington gasped as a loud explosion cut him off.

"What was that?" Mary panicked.

"The wing!" Mr Washington growled. "It exploded."

"Now _how_ did it do that?" Mary asked sharply.

"Brimpmon destroyed it." I said stepping toward the cabin. "We need to get out of here _now_."

"We can't Tatum!" Mr Washington snapped, "I'm a good pilot, but I cannot fly a plane with only one wing! I'll just have to land it safely.

I bit my bottom lip and ran toward the window again. On my way there I heard another explosion and I fell to the ground. The plane was now falling at a rapid speed toward the water. I didn't understand! How was this happening? Nothing dangerous had ever happened to me, not even in the digital world and I was finding it ridiculously hard to cope with... and what was worse was that digimon weren't in this world anymore. Michael had told me so! He had said that the reason Monodramon—or Airdramon as he was at the time—and my digivice disappeared was because he and the others had saved the world! Then why the heck was that giant machine digimon here and attacking us?

I pulled myself to my feet shakily as the plane fell toward the water. I heard Mr Washington and Mary screaming and panicking as I looked out the window once more.

The world was really beautiful... I could imagine myself dying now... not without telling Michael how I felt—this stupid on and off relationship thing was so…stupid! I loved him and needed him to know that! Why did I break up with him again? Stupid need for drama... I felt tears begin to sting my eyes as the plane slowed its fall.

Wait—why was it slowing?

I looked out the window and gasped. A long dragon like digimon had wrapped itself around the plane tightly, its wings flapping slowly and strongly trying to keep us in the air. We were still going down, but much slower and more gently. And even though we were saved, that was not the most exciting thing that had happened to me in that moment. The digimon that had saved us was Airdramon. _My_ Airdramon.

Airdramon set us in the water and I instantly rushed toward the door to the jet, unlatching it and kicking it open. Instantly a ball of light flew into my hand, knocking me back a little. As I looked down to it I smiled. It was my digivice. I looked back to Airdramon with a smile.

"Airdramon!" I yelled out as he unwrapped himself from the jet. He looked down to me and smiled as much as he could as I jumped out the door and landed on the end of his tail that he had held out for me.

"Tatum!" Mr Washington called as Airdramon helped me up to his head.

"I'll be right back." I told them simply as Airdramon rounded toward Brimpmon. "Go get him buddy." I told him. He nodded and shot through the sky, sending waves of energy through the air toward the large Machine. He wasn't going to kill him, and I knew that. He refused to kill anything as long as I'd known him, but it wouldn't be hard to make Brimpmon to fly away—he was a coward of a digimon.

And I was right... soon Brimpmon was gone, flying the opposite direction, trying to avoid Airdramon's attacks.

"Let's get the others." I told him as he soared down to pick up Mr Washington and Mrs Kennedy.

I wasn't sure how he'd gotten to Earth, but I didn't really care... he was back with me... and even though he couldn't talk to tell me that, I could tell he felt the same way.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** The groups are split now more than ever. Can they hold themselves together, or will the pressure of the three worlds break them down? Will Iori be able to handle the orders of Fanglongmon? What will Jou do now that he's got so few to help him save his family? And just how is Momoe faring? Find out next time! (Which is…tomorrow…)


	34. Orders

**Y/N: **I was Iori, and I finally got a chance at being Fanglongmon…and it kind of creeped me out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I was two people this time, Iori and Momoe, and I'd like to know what you think, so review if you feel so inclined!

**U/N:** I think this chapter is Jou and Iori... uhm... yeah. i think Otamamon and Demiveemon are here... only the thing is, no one really decided this until today, and i had the chapter written already, and i don't want to edit it because we have less than three minutes to get this up on time... anyway... Jou mostly thinks in this one, so they're there, he just doesn't take note of them... i'll add them into the next chapter with this group :D review and stuff... and sorry about crazy sora in the last chapter.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 34: Orders**

_**Iori:**_

I had to stick to my gut instincts, but there was a point where I was seriously questioning those instincts. Maybe my intuition was broken, because I was very much doubting my actions. Joining Kurayami was the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life.

I knew that for certain as I was standing at what used to be the summer camp's entrance. The archway that stated the name of the camp was still there, but the campgrounds themselves…well…they weren't. There was a giant dark hole where the camp was supposed to be. A strange phenomenon that didn't startle me nearly as much as it should've. I couldn't handle any more shock without a good dose of sleep and nourishment. Time to allow everything to sink in would have been appreciated as well.

Unfortunately I knew I was going to get none of that.

The best I could hope for was a few minutes to compose myself before coming face to face with Fanglongmon…

And maybe, just maybe, I'd get to see Natsuni and Noriko, and Momoe. They were close. I could just feel it. But that endless pit of darkness wasn't going to make it easy to find them. I thought of asking Kurayami where they'd be, but the fierce determination on her face made me stay silent.

"Follow me," she said lowly, walking straight into the darkness. Daisuke followed without question, as did Ken—who was carrying a terrified looking Wormmon. Michael and Yamato looked at each other with hesitation, but when Betamon went in after Ken, Michael's decision had been made for him. Yamato took after him, leaving an unwilling Gabumon to follow his lead.

"Ready Armadillomon?" I asked.

"No. Not really," he admitted.

"Stay close," Kurayami said somewhere in the black abyss. "You wouldn't want to get lost in here."

"Let's go," I said quickly.

"Yes let's," Armadillomon agreed, running into the darkness right by my side.

It wasn't as dark in the abyss as I'd originally thought. There wasn't much light though. The lighting was dimmer than that of an old gas lamp, but there was enough to see shapes moving ahead of us—whom I correctly assumed to be my friends—and there were _things_ moving around on either side. Some seemed to work there, some of Fanglongmon's minions, but others…they were in cages. They were waiting to be brought wherever they needed to go. I could've sworn I saw an Impmon, but the lighting made me second guess myself.

It could've been Noriko's Impmon. The one she blamed me for taking away from her…right before that stupid event that lead t her being my stalker.

I wondered idly if ensuring her reunion with Impmon would make her leave me alone.

It was the opposite of what Betamon made me promise, but I'd at least be able to relax while walking down the school hallways.

"Are we almost there?" I heard Michael ask.

"No questions," Kurayami told him.

"But yes," Daisuke said. "It's just around the corner."

I could just imagine Kurayami glaring at him in that moment. What a dunderhead. We did as Daisuke instructed, and came to a large doorway—black of course, to go with the rest of the décor.

"It's time," Kurayami said. The guards on either side of the door nodded and pulled the doors open. "Meet your new master, bow to his will, and you will reap your rewards."

I'm not going to lie. That statement was both creepy and twisted, causing me to force back a panicked feeling. The doors were pushed closed behind us the moment we passed through, making me feel trapped. And I was trapped. I was locked in a room with the most powerful digimon in the known worlds—world? I wasn't sure what to call them—it?—anymore.

The room held more light than the rest of this Fortress of Evil, but only just. I could make out a gold statue at the end of the room; it was gigantic, and appeared to be modeled after a dragon, with spikes running down its neck and legs, and larger plates on its back, resembling horns rather than spikes. Other than that I was surprised by how little was in the room. A few smaller statues made of lesser materials—stone, marble, bronze, etc.—and us.

I was a little disappointed to find that Fanglongmon wasn't actually there. I was relieved—don't get me wrong—but also disappointed. I'd worked so hard to get to him, to get to Natsuni. And he wasn't even there when I arrived.

"Master," Kurayami said in that same low voice. "I have brought back all that were convinced."

"I know," came a deep condescending voice. "I see all in this world. I know all. Do not waste my time with such trivial knowledge. Do you think me incompetent?"

"No, no," Kurayami said quickly, desperately. "You are the best in this world Master, in all worlds."

"Silence," the voice continued. "You're pleas are boring me."

"Yes master," Kurayami said, bowing her head respectfully towards the giant gold dragon statue.

The statue that just opened its eyes—all _six_ of them—and turned its head towards our group. Michael and Yamato gasped, and Gabumon, Wormmon and Armadillomon made a strangled noise in fear. I remained silent. I had to play my part. I couldn't risk anything. Not now that I'd come so close.

"Michael Washington," Fanglongmon said—or I assumed the dragon to be Fanglongmon, as his voice was coming from its mouth this time. "The son of Hollywood's brightest action heroes, who wants to follow in his footsteps, become a success, live up to the Washington name. You are worried over the petty matter of your female companions loyalties—'Does she think about me? Is she worried? Does she love me?'—your drivel is continuous and insignificant, though you intrigue me."

Michael gulped at the character analysis. That was when I remembered Fanglongmon got inside your head. He knew who you really were, what you thought of yourself, what made you tick. It was how he got the others to follow him. It was what was going to expose me for the fraud I was.

"Yamato Ishida, the Teenage Wolf," Fanglongmon said, picking a new target. "You left your best friend—your _leader_—to come here, abandoned your girlfriend. You worry you made the wrong choice, but you stick with it, because it _'feels right'_. You will be useful, with the power you and your digimon wield. Do not cross me. It will be the last thing you do."

Yamato nodded immediately, agreeing with anything Fanglongmon said.

"Ken Ichijouji," Fanglongmon practically purred. "The Digimon Kaiser. How does it feel to be back in your true skin? Don't tell me. I already know. You feel free. You've given up any worry and attachment to serve me to the best of your abilities. You're mind is already plotting, trying to help me in any way you can. The simple 'Ken' is no more. I like that. I like you. You are an asset to my vision."

He was laying it on pretty thick there. Ken was just lapping it up too. It was as if he didn't know who he was anymore. I figured it was true, and that he didn't, but it was unsettling to watch.

"Your digimon is conflicted," Fanglongmon noted. "Keep a leash on it, don't let it spoil everything."

"Never," Ken said. "He knows his place."

"Good," Fanglongmon said, sounding oddly happy. "I like that."

Ken smiled that same wicked smile he used to use when terrorizing weak digimon. I was afraid for him in that moment. He was so far gone I was sure he'd never come back again.

"Iori Hida," Fanglongmon said. "Is your grandfather alright?"

What? No character analysis for me? I almost _wanted_ to know what he thought of me. But the thought of him hurting my elderly grandfather made me see red. It was hard to keep myself in check. As it was, Armadillomon was desperate to attack him. He was too weak to do damage though, so he settled for growling at the floor.

"As far as I know," I said. I gritted my teeth, going against everything I stood for when I continued with: "As far as I care."

"Excellent. Your digimon too needs to be on a tight leash. You are no Kaiser, I need that reassurance," Fanglongmon demanded.

"He'll do nothing unless asked," I said emotionlessly. "He needs orders to follow, he's useless without them."

I could feel Armadillomon's hurt eyes on my face. He didn't know I was lying. He should've been able to tell. I was almost physically ill for lying, but it was necessary.

When Fanglongmon didn't continue I let out a very brief sigh of relief.

"You are mine now, my puppets, my minions if you will. You do as I say. I will take no insubordination. I don't like it when my orders aren't fulfilled. My punishments are severe. You may not survive one. Don't make me punish you."

His deep voice poured over me like a cold mist, making my skin crawl.

"I have taken the Dark Ocean, because my lovely Kurayami left the gates open. It was not her intention, but it was a most fortunate accident. I could take it for myself, and therefore I did. The merging was a trivial matter in itself. The Digital World is always trying to accommodate for everything inside it. Allowing the worlds to merge through the open gateway was simple, and it led me to my most powerful of all puppets: Dragomon."

So Dragomon was not an ally. He thought of Dragomon was little more than us. He was a tool to Fanglongmon, a way to reach his goal. That was good to know. It meant he wasn't nearly as powerful as Fanglongmon. He was beatable.

Fanglongmon—now that I'd seen him—didn't appear to bear that same description.

"Is Dragomon important though?" Yamato asked. Kurayami gasped in horror at his blatant disrespect for her master. "Does he have a part in your master scheme, or is he just a simple distraction?"

"You dare question me?"

Fanglongmon's voice grew three times in volume, reaching decibels that made my ears ring, booming out over everyone in the room. Three of our four digimon cowered, Betamon covered his head with his fins and started crying out. Ken and Kurayami dropped to their knees, shrieking in pain. Daisuke was still standing, but only just. Yamato and Michael looked overwhelmed. Michael was holding one hand up to his left temple, rubbing it to ease what little pain he felt. I felt nothing—but followed their lead, holding my head in my hands, willing him not to catch on to me.

"No," Kurayami yelled. "No master. We'll never question you. He's yet to know his place. Forgive me my short sighting. I did not prepare him enough for your service."

"Peace child," he told her. "I blame you not. I just wished to demonstrate the order of hierarchy here. Guards," he called out to the other statues—okay, so they weren't statues at all—"It is time for my virused friends to join us."

They moved to the side and opened a door different to the one I'd entered through. In strode what looked to be a wooden marionette, and a circus clown, followed by the largest piece of machinery I'd ever seen.

These were the Dark Masters; I knew they had to be.

But they didn't look nearly as terrifying as they'd been before, when I'd first spotted them. They looked borderline scared to be in this room.

I kind of wanted to escape myself. Well, I wanted to escape long enough to find Natsuni.

"It is my pleasure to bestow upon you your next quest," Fanglongmon declared. "Hikari Yagami must be found and _must_ be taken down. She is the epitome of all light, and therefore destroying her will grant me and Dragomon—an unfortunate clause in our agreement—rule over darkness. You must fulfill this request. I will not accept anything less than a completed mission. Do you understand me?"

The three Dark Masters nodded. I noted idly that the others had mentioned there being _four_ of them, but ignored that. There were more pressing matters at hand. One: his logic seemed quite skewed. Destroying the bearer of light would make _him_ the bearer of light, would it not? Not the bearer of darkness? But the second matter, Hikari, was even more important.

I had sworn twice now to protect her, and for the fourth time, a portion of that dream had come into fruition. I could not allow Fanglongmon's plan to succeed. I had to keep her safe. I'd promised. And just like rescuing Natsuni and Momoe, I kept my promises.

I had only three images left before Hikari's doom would occur. I had to keep them from happening. I _had_ to.

"You, my young minions," Fanglongmon said, distracting me from my musing. I did not enjoy being referred to as a minion in the slightest. "You must prepare, for we will have guests soon, and you must be ready for them. You will fight any and all intruders…_yes_ even your brother, Yamato Ishida, if it comes to it. You fight for me now. You are no longer in control of anything. You relinquished that control to me when you allowed me in your minds and let me guide you. You are doing the right thing. Remember that."

It was a dismissal apparently. Kurayami was quick to round us up and push us out of the room. She didn't want us embarrassing her in front of him anymore I guessed. Although I realized that Fanglongmon had to have embedded himself very far into her mind…

…and must not have cared about looking into my own.

If he had he would have known I was not loyal. He'd have known I was going to do the opposite of his orders, and _save_ Hikari if I could. Known that I was _lying_ to save my friends, and have known just how much those lies were killing me.

But he didn't seem to know.

Or maybe he just didn't care…

_**Jou:**_

"I don't want that." Meiyomon shook his head quickly to the man who looked like Gennai, Benjamin I thought he had said his name was. It was strange seeing Meiyomon again, even though it had only been a few simple hours without him, now that I was seeing him again he looked so much more mature, and elegant—and well... older. I knew it had something to do with the fact that I had hardly seen him after the digivolution in the first place, and now having him return a fully grown man—er... teenager at the very least—well it was odd. But just the way he went about things, speaking in a clear, lower voice, elegant and graceful—it was certainly strange.

But paying attention to Meiyomon's demeanor was not the point of standing here—if fact, there was no point in standing here, we should have been gone already, but instead we were waiting for Meiyomon and Benjamin to figure out babysitting arrangements for a bunch of eggs. It was ridiculous—and the way they were talking about them, "they need lots of warmth, I liked to put them outside in a basket." and "Be careful not to leave them on too long!" made me think that instead of keeping the digimon safe, they were actually discussing step by step rules of how to cook them properly. Which was gross in itself—even the thought of eggs still repulsed me... but what repulsed me even more than eggs—which was saying something—was that we were waiting around talking about minor details such as these instead of working on saving my family. Momoe was still out there—she could have been dying! And the baby's due date was in less than a month... now was simply NOT the time to be having an adventure!

Which was exactly what I told her three months ago as the third trimester was coming around...

"_You know," Momoe said with a grin as she sat close to me on our bed. "I think I want to travel the world."_

"_Yeah?" I asked her, smiling back at her, "Well that seems fun. I'm sure we'll still be able to do that after our kids are older."_

"_What?" She asked me, "No, I meant now silly."_

"Right_ now?" I asked her._

"_Like next week we'll just get on a plane and go!" She seemed excited, and I had to admit, the spur of the moment excitement in her voice was off the scales of adorable. She clapped her hands together, "It'll be fun! We can go to Digi-America, and to Digi-Russia, and to Digi-Spain..."_

I smiled to myself as I recalled the event, Momoe had a tendency to add "digi" and "mon" to random words to try and fit in with the other digidestined.

"_Momoe—" I had stopped her, laughing as she ranted about different countries she wanted to see, "That sounds great, but we can't actually do that. We have to take care of the baby."_

"_The baby is going to be taken care of by us for eighteen years—we can at least spend the last three and a half months doing something fun." She was still grinning. "Let's go to Canada!" She seemed really dead set on heading out to Canada._

"_Momoe—firstly you're not supposed to fly anywhere while in your third trimester." I told her, "It's not safe—and second I want to have a normal family! I want to sit here and read to our unborn child, play him—" "—her" Momoe interjected, but I ignored her and continued, "Classical music to improve his or her brain, and then we can send him—or her, off to school and watch him... or her... walk down the laneway toward the school bus—we'll take pictures and—"_

"_You're getting ahead of yourself Jou." She warned me. "This baby," She pointed to her stomach, "This baby is still inside of me. It's not going to school anytime soon, and it doesn't have a mind of it's own."_

"_Actually it does." I informed her, "The babies brain begins to develop in week five of the pregnancy—so little Isao hears everything we're saying."_

"_Even _if_ our baby is a boy—we are _not_ naming him after your father!" Momoe cried out, changing the direction of the argument completely. "He's cruel. He doesn't show any compassion or any sort of love for any of his children, he's just plain mean—and he hates me! I refuse to allow my baby to grow up with that name because all I'll be able to think about is how awful your father is."_

"_Why don't you tell me how you _really_ feel?" I said sarcastically. "My father is a great man Momoe—sure his morals are imperfect and he seems to be living in the medieval times, but he really is a great man, and I think our baby would not only carry out that legacy of being great—but be even _better_! And besides, I think my dad would like it if we named the baby after him."_

"_It's always about pleasing your father." Momoe growled, sliding away from me and pulling herself to her feet. She turned to me at the edge of the bed and said, "Why don't you ever wonder what I want?"_

"_Fine." I said slowly, sitting up straight and looking toward her. "What do you want to name the baby?"_

"_Aki." Momoe said simply. "It means 'Autumn' which I think is really pretty and it stands for everything I want our baby to stand for."_

"_Autumn is the season where everything dies." I pointed out._

"_Not the point Jou." She warned me._

"_And the baby will be born in late Summer, why would we name it Autumn?" I asked her._

"_Summer and Autumn are close." She said through gritted teeth. "Do you have a better name?"_

"_No." I told her, "How about this... if it's a boy we'll name it Isao, and if it's a girl will name it Ako... er... Aiko... or... Aikilobaba or whatever the name was."_

"_Aki." Momoe said, grinning a little. "That sounds fair... but let's hope for a girl then." She winked at me as she crawled back into the bed and pulled the covers over top of her. It was over—just like that. That had been one of the first arguments we'd ever had. And we hadn't had any since because right before we fell asleep I muttered six simple words "you can't travel the world Momoe." And then when I woke up... Momoe was gone leaving a simple note._

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the note, and read it over again, a frown on my face... something was pulling at me... either my heart, or my brain perhaps... but something was present. It was like every word in this letter was cutting open a healed wound again and again... and I couldn't figure out what feeling was in my heart... it felt like hatred, but I knew I didn't hate Momoe—I knew one hundred percent that I was in love with her... so why was this letter doing this to me...?

"What's that?" Gomamon asked me. "Is it a story? You should read it to me."

"No..." I told him.

"Aw!" He cried out, "Why not?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I told him flatly, walking away from him and toward Meiyomon and Benjamin.

I stared at Benjamin until he looked toward me. "Can I help you, sir?" He asked.

"Just keep the eggs safe." I told him. "Don't let them get hurt and don't let anyone take them." Then I turned to Mieyomon. "We have to get going."

"B-But—" Meiyomon tried.

"No 'buts'" I shot at him. He sighed and turned away from Benjamin and myself.

"Wow Jou." Mimi said from behind me, tapping me on the shoulder. I turned toward her to see her and Gennai watching me. "That was pretty strict. You're a good leader and you're not even wearing the goggles!"

"The goggles are stupid." I informed her with a sigh, hardly even knowing what I was saying. "You're all acting like children. Passing around a pair of goggles playing follow the leader. What's next? Leap Frog? Hide and Seek? Well I guess we're already playing that aren't we? We have no idea where anyone is and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not knowing anything! Momoe's gone—taken and I was an idiot to let her sister run off unsupervised... I know Momoe would want me to keep her safe—Miyako is practically _my_ sister now and here I am, letting her run away—and IORI! I was so caught up in my own mind and delusions that I let him run off and join the good side!"

"Dark side." Takeru filled in, jumping into the conversation with Gomamon, Patamon, Hikari and Lopmon.

"That's what I said." I told him, positive that I was right.

"Jou, you need to sleep." Gomamon said with a smile, "Whenever I get tired I get like this too—and my fish friends always tell me to take a fish nap. Get it? Do you get it Jou? It's like a catnap—but for fish—"

"I get it." I told him flatly.

"Jou, are you okay?" Hikari asked me slowly.

"You're looking a little dizzy." Lopmon added.

"I'm fine!" I snapped. And before I knew it I had been slapped across the face.

I placed my hand on my cheek and turned slowly to Mimi.

I knew I was glaring at her though I wanted to look at her as if she had saved my life—because she had just brought me to the realization that I had been acting like a jerk. I thought she would back down to my unintentional glare, but she didn't. She stood tall and proud, arms crossed, glaring at me.

"You need to stop this Jou." She told me. "You're not this mean—you're just upset over Momoe and I get it, but we'll save her. I swear on my _life_ that I will help you save her—I will do ANYTHING for you, and since Momoe is such a big part of your life, that means I'll do anything for her as well. I know it seems like I don't care anymore Jou—but I do. I care about you_ so_ much. More than you know, or seem to care about me. And that's fine, but I swear to you, I swear on everything under the sun that I will help you save that woman, and I will make sure you raise a family with her." I fiddled with the letter in my pocket and then stared at the ground.

"Thank you Mimi..." I managed to say, forcing the words through the lump in my throat. I had to stop acting stupid... I wanted to tell her that I loved her too... but I couldn't say it—I could barely even think it. All I knew was that I was in a state of total confusion and shock... I barely even knew who I was fighting against anymore...

"You're welcome." She said flatly.

"Not that I really care or anything," Gennai said, bringing everyone's attention toward him. "But we should get going now."

Everyone nodded and moved toward Meiyomon who was dancing on the spot.

"Let's go." Mimi said.

"YEAH!" Meiyomon cheered, "—Oh wait! Benjamin—remember to take them for three walks an hour and—"

Meiyomon's voice was drowned out suddenly... all I could hear was a faint glittering... twinkling? It was weird, but it felt warm...

And then suddenly I felt as if I had been plunged into icy waters as a deep voice spoke. It was echoing in my head and sending pain through my temples.

_Mr Kido... you seek the one known as Momoe Inoue... I can help you. I can help you get her... if you come with me... you will save her. Do you want that?_

I didn't answer. I couldn't answer. What was happening? Was this Fanglongmon?

Suddenly a different voice was playing inside my head, it was a girls...

"_I'm so bored!"_ I recognized it as Noriko—Iori's stalker. _"When do we get more food?"_

"_Noriko hush up." _This voice was Natsuni—I had only met her once before... but her voice was distinguishable. _"Momoe's trying to sleep."_

Just the sound of her name sent shivers down my spine—she was trying to sleep—she was okay! She was with Noriko and Natsuni! I couldn't help myself, I finally found myself smiling.

_I can help you get to her if you join me Jou Kido... but if you don't... I think I know _exactly_ what I'll do to little miss Momoe._

My heart was ripped out of my chest as Meiyomon swished his arm and the pink light surrounded us.

_**Momoe:**_

I hoped Nyaromon was alright. She had better be anyway. For her sake…and for ours.

I placed a hand on my stomach and grimaced. I didn't want to go into labour in this cell, and it seemed to me that it was taking forever for Jou to find me. And I wasn't in that great of a mood either. The baby still hadn't moved. I was starting to panic.

Noriko and Natsuni's arguing wasn't helping matters.

For someone who claimed to not care for Iori in _that_ way, Natsuni was getting pretty defensive about him. Noriko had almost been in tears at one point. The girl was more than just a tad annoying, but I didn't think that warranted such an attack from Natsuni.

"Urgh!" Natsuni groaned. "Shut up, Noriko!"

"No," Noriko persisted. "Not until you admit it. You want him for yourself. You do. Everyone can see it._ That's_ why you can't stand me hanging around. I'm too much competition for you."

"You're not competition, okay? I don't want to be with him like that. He's my best friend, but even if I _did_ want to be with him, you _still_ wouldn't be competition. He can't stand you. Just the sound of your voice makes his skin crawl. He hides in school bathrooms just to escape you. He avoids you like the plague."

She was getting pretty harsh. I could see Noriko wincing as each remark hit home. I didn't know what the situation was really like—having not met either of them before being kidnapped, and not really speaking with Iori much either—but locking them together in a small enclosed space for a seemingly endless amount of time was not helping matters in the least. The confinement seemed to be making their patience shorter…

"A _paper_ _bag _is more competition than you," Natsuni added. "But I don't even have to worry about that, because he's my best friend. Nothing more. As it stands…_you_ seem to be the one that can't handle competition."

"You just said you weren't competition," Noriko snapped. She was upset—if the tears welling in her eyes were any indication—but she was also furious. Whatever vendetta she had against Natsuni, this was _not_ the best time or place for it to go down.

"I know," she said. "I can't help it if he actually likes being around me though."

"Enough," I said. I was irritable too. I hadn't been able to sleep—due to both their bickering and the hard, stone floor. It wouldn't have been good for the baby—and I was hungry, and I was thirsty, and I wanted Jou but he wasn't there, and the baby just would not kick! Why wouldn't my baby tell me it was alright? Was I already failing as a mother? Could I not keep my baby safe before it was even born? Did something bad happen, something unspeakable? I would be letting Jou down. Letting the baby down. Letting my _family_ down. How could that be okay?

My hormones were killing me!

"I don't want to hear another argument out of either of you. Natsuni, you don't even _like him_, and Noriko, she's not competition, so you don't have to treat her like it. So you're jealous of the time she can spend with him, so what? You have to earn that time. You can't just stalk people and get them to want to be with you, alright? You need to be yourself. You need to sit down and talk with him for more than five minutes, get to know him properly. You need to learn about his interests and share your own. You can't just force yourself on him. Be yourself and let things happen naturally," I told her. "He doesn't love you. I'm sorry if that reality is harsh or hard to hear, but it's true. You can't _make_ him love you. But you can help him realize it himself if you do those things. Take time and have patience."

"Will…. Will that work?" she asked.

"It might," I told her. "But there is also the chance that the two of you aren't really compatible. You need to accept that too, if it's the case. Love cannot be forced. It's natural and wonderful, but only when it happens on its own accord."

"I know," she said miserably. "But I can't help but feel as though there is something there. But that maybe I was a little late in realizing it? You know? So I just…I want to make up for it. Because I do care about him, a lot. And he's one of the greatest guys I've ever met. I just want that, you know? What other girls have: love and a great boyfriend who is actually a friend too, not just a guy to parade around. He cares about me. I can tell, I just don't understand why he won't give me a chance."

"It's because you literally stalk him," Natsuni said with a snarky tone. I sent a look her way, and she sighed. "Okay. So it's because you hurt him. But the stalking doesn't help."

"How did I hurt him? I just want to be with him," Noriko said. "I want to make him happy. What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong is that you're three years too late, maybe just two years, I don't know," Natsuni said, throwing up her hands in defeat. "Iori really liked you. He did. He wanted you to be his girlfriend, but when he went to ask you out, you introduced him to this guy, calling him your boyfriend, and you ruined love for him. He still won't watch romantic movies with me, because he can't stand the idea of love. It's all your fault of course. He doesn't want to give in to you, because he's over it, his crush I mean. He told me when we first met that much. Which is disappointing of course, because a love-sick Iori would have been highly amusing, or at least, I imagine it would be. He's serious all the time. He turns away when couples kiss in the hallway. You broke his perfect image of love, and now he can only see the bad things that could happen because of it: the heartbreak, unrequited affections, painful rejections, the terrified uncertainty and the loss of control. I wish I could help him, but…he won't let me."

I was shocked. These girls had more mood swings than I did. And I was pregnant….

"Of course, if you tell him I told you any of that, I'll gladly hunt you down," Natsuni said, becoming the fiery fighter again. "I just didn't want to you know…die or something without you knowing. I think it'd break him even more if that happened."

"We're not going to die," Noriko said, before I could. "Don't you remember the movies? The good guys always rescue the damsel in distress. Iori will come for us, and Jou will get his wife—"Girlfriend" I corrected only to be ignored—and everything will be okay."

"The movies don't take as long as this though," Natsuni said. She looked to Goblimon who'd returned silently from the pointless search for Nyaromon, and smiled slightly. "I believe in him, and I trust him with everything I've got, but I'm tired. I can't sleep here, not while I'm fearing for my life."

"We'll protect you," I told her. Noriko looked iffy, but Goblimon surprisingly nodded.

"Sleep," Noriko said gently—causing Natsuni to look at her strangely. "You'll need it. Just a couple of hours maybe."

"Alright," Natsuni said, moving to the spot in the cell closest to Goblimon. "Wake me up soon though…"

She was out like a light.

"You can sleep too, you know," I told Noriko.

"I'm alright. You've given me a lot to think about," she admitted.

"I have. But I'm glad you're taking it to heart. You won't get anywhere with that boy if you don't."

"If you don't mind my asking," she said, red faced. "How do you know so much about this? Me and Iori I mean."

"Jou tells me all about it. He's Iori's personal shrink sometimes I think. Iori asks him for advice about you all the time. Jou says he doesn't stop talking about it," I admitted.

"He talks about me a lot?" she asked with a hopeful smile.

"All the time," I said.

"But is that good or bad?" she pondered.

I let her think it out this time. I couldn't answer her anyway. I wasn't sure myself. I rubbed my belly again.

_Daddy's coming to save us, baby. You have to be strong for him. You can't disappear on us. Not now. Can you do that baby?_

Nothing. Thinking to the baby wasn't helping at all.

_Move baby. Please? If daddy gets here and you're not healthy—_I couldn't think the word I truly meant—_he'll be so upset. You can feel that daddy's coming, right? You'd move and let me know right?_

"I'm going crazy," I murmured.

"What?" Noriko asked.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Just talking to myse—Oh!"

"What? What is it?" she asked panicked.

"Give me your hand," I said with tears running down my face. I knew I must look a wreck. She held out her hand tentatively, and I grabbed it and forced it towards my stomach. Her eyes lit up as she felt the fluttering.

"Is that?" she asked in awe.

"The baby," I said with a watery smile.

And my baby knew I needed a sign, just as it knew Jou was coming. I couldn't lose hope now. Not when he was so close.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Miyako and Sora are on their own quests to find themselves, and their digimon, and Daisuke is struggling to find his place in the new hierarchy of Kurayami's team. How will he cope being second fiddle to his best friend? And Toshiko takes up the charge, leading the fellow parents and Rei towards an enemy of their own…


	35. Honourable Discharge

**Y/N: **Ah ha! I'm done. And I hope you enjoy it. I'm kind of happy with the way Miyako and Daisuke turned out. Please review, if you want to.

**U/N:** It's happening now. She's literally writing it now. -_- and it's supposed to go up like… now. Point being, I think it'll be good. Action. Cuteness. Amazing… it's fun. Written mostly by my sister but I wrote Toshiko at the end :D anyway, review..

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 35: Honourable Discharge**

_**Daisuke:**_

It was a relief to feel Fanglongmon pulling out of my mind some. I wasn't even going to try and hide that from him. There was no point after all. It was nice, to have a little control over what I was thinking.

Enough to realize that Fanglongmon had been in charge of my thoughts for the past…I didn't know how long really. He was still there, holding on to the corners of my mind, but he seemed busy, like he was trying to get another ally but needed all of his strength to crack through.

I could only hope it wasn't Hikari. She _would_ be strong willed enough to keep him out for awhile, but he would win. He always wins.

_That's what made him a good master…_

I shook my head. My moments of 'devoted follower' were confusing. I tended to just ignore them. Fanglongmon _did_ bring me here because he needed a leader, and I was the only one suited for the job. Of course, the current situation with Ken—my best friend—being more important to Fanglongmon was _not_ comforting in the least. And the way that _Kurayami_ just…draped herself over him, throwing herself at his mercy just for the chance to have been involved with anything he did or said was not making me like him much better. He wasn't even supposed to be there. I was there for Kurayami. That was it. She needed a leader, and she couldn't go off alone. I couldn't let her do this alone.

Ken had Miyako. And he probably screwed that all up thanks to Fanglongmon. Ken was now a mindless soldier for the master. He seemed to be made of pure evil. He was the Kaiser again, and I couldn't help the compulsive need to fight against the Kaiser. It was my job. The first job the Digital World ever gave me. A job that I was needed for, where I was the leader.

I wandered through the dimly lit corridors, wondering if there was anything I could possibly do for entertainment, and walking into walls, because _really_, there wasn't enough light for me to see anything. Fanglongmon should look into an interior designer if he was so embarrassed by the look of the place. Light was kind of important for, you know, rather clumsy people, and me—because I was _not_ clumsy.

That's when I heard it, a soft whimpering.

My first thought was that it was one of those unlucky girls that Fanglongmon was able to take…I couldn't remember who they were at the moment, not with the haze that Fanglongmon had left in his wake, but I knew they were important to someone.

But there were no tell tale signs of comfort. If there were three girls, they would have been helping each other through it, even if Fanglongmon was a rather gracious host, feeding them and everything, trying to keep them alive.

The crying continued, though it was quiet. I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't run into another wall. It was feminine—so it couldn't be Iori, who was my second guess, the poor little guy—and it made my heart ache just to hear it.

I tip-toed around the corner and continued to quietly walk towards the noise. There, in an alcove, I found Kurayami. Her hair was flowing over her shaking shoulders, her head was in her hands, and on her drawn up knees. She looked so small, so vulnerable….so_ breakable_.

"Kura," I whispered.

She gasped and her head flew up, searching for the intruder. She let out a soft scream, but the tears had watered it down. Fiercely wiping at the streams on her cheeks, she refused to meet my eye.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Y-yes," she said. It was such an obvious lie, that even _I_ didn't fall for it. "W-why wouldn't I b-be?"

"You're crying," I pointed out, lowering myself to the floor next to her. "That means something's wrong."

"Maybe something is better though," she said softly. "And I'm so relieved…?"

"Could be," I admitted. "Fanglongmon pulled out, right?"

"I—I…" she floundered. I knew I was right at that moment. I didn't need to hear her say it. She kept looking at the ceiling, choking on the words she was trying to say.

"Yeah, I know," I said, putting my arm around her shoulder and pulling her up against me. She clung to me, burying her face in my chest as she let out louder sobs, as I rubbed her back. "Let it all out."

"I-I'm scared," she cried. "He's coming back, I know it, and I don't want him to. I want to be myself. I want to make my own choices. I don't wanna have to hurt you!"

"Hold up," I told her. "You are yourself. Just look at you. I don't know anyone else like you. You're strong, Kurayami. You're brave. And you couldn't hurt me if you wanted to."

"But the master could," she said. "He could make me, whether I wanted to or not. I just know he's going to make me do it, Daisuke. He will. And I don't want to hurt you. You have to go away. Run away. Save yourself. Do it. He can't get to you. He can't get to Hikari. You're my o-only friends. You can't get hurt. I don't want it to happen."

Her words were running together and masked by the hysterics she was working herself into, but I got the gist of it. She wanted me to leave. To just up and run away and leave her behind. If it were even possible to run away from Fanglongmon once he'd gotten you, I would not have done it. I couldn't leave her like this, couldn't leave her to face him alone. She was too young to have to deal with this. We were all too young. And I knew from my experience with Ken, that having someone there to help you, no matter how dark the time is, makes all the difference in the world.

And Kurayami was a beautiful girl. She had so much potential. I couldn't leave her here to lose that. Hikari was the only other person who believed in her like I did. The only one that accepted that she _wasn't_ really the way she seemed. Hikari and I knew how tight Fanglongmon held his leash on her. And even though my own leash had a lot more slack, I was going to stand by her side. Because I _wanted_ to. It was the only thing Fanglongmon couldn't take from me. It was my own choice, and she couldn't make me change my mind.

"If you don't want it to happen," I said. "It won't happen. That's all there is to it. And I'm _never_ going to leave you. Understand. You're stuck with me. I'm not leaving."

"I'm just…I'm just so scared, Daisuke," she said, her voice breaking with the strain of all of her crying. "I don't want him to come back."

"But he's going to," I finished for her. "You just have to stay strong. Stay close to me if you can. I'll be there for you."

"You want to be there?" she asked. She was so broken. I hated Fanglongmon for doing that to her. Whatever he did to me…that was my own choice, but he didn't give her that option. "With me?"

She sounded like she hated herself just as much as I hated 'the master'. I winced at her tone, the desperate need to find out she wasn't alone. The way she doubted my conviction.

"Always," I told her, hugging her close. I would have been content to stay there with her in my arms for hours. I didn't care about the intruders—who my now open mind realized were probably my friends—I didn't care about the master. I just wanted this. This simplicity, the comfort, the thrill of having her holding me back.

But it wasn't to last, because Fanglongmon had given up whatever his new target had been, and was forcing his way back in with a vengeance.

_**Miyako:**_

"Are you sure you're okay with this?"

It was the fourth time she'd asked him that.

"Of course I am," Tentomon said. "If I wasn't, I would not be here."

"As simple as that?" Sora asked hesitantly.

"Yes," he said bluntly. "But I want to make Koushiro happy, and he wishes for me to look after you, Sora. And Miyako I suppose."

"Thanks," I said dryly.

"You're welcome." Clearly he needed lessons in sarcasm. He and Koushiro both needed lessons on interacting with people in general as well. Some other people I know need to be educated on other matters: mainly how not to absolutely and utterly betray both their girlfriends and the entire digital and earth populations. But…there were times I thought those 'social studies' were needed a bit more desperately.

"So…" Sora said. "You and Ken…"

"So over," I said firmly. "I thought we'd decided to just…_not_ talk about it?"

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. "But now Yamato and I are so done too, and I just need to rant. Are you sure you two are done?"

"Well. I mean if Ken can prove to me that he wants to be with me, then we'll be together. But as it stands…I _think _I'm done with Ken."

"So you'll have no qualms about a good ranting session," she said happily.

"Am I to participate in this 'rant session'?" Tentomon asked.

"Only if you want to," Sora said. "We won't exclude you, but don't feel pressured."

"I think this sounds kind of fun," I said. "Well, Ken totally freaks out whenever we're hanging out in my room. He's a neat freak, and can't even kiss me until my room is entirely clean. I can't be bothered to clean it, you know? I just don't care, but his mom did raise him, and she labels everything."

"Yeah," Sora said. "Yamato cooked dinner every day, for me and his dad—and sometimes Takeru—but he never once asked if I had allergies or preferences. I mean, we had tuna surprise for two weeks straight, because I made a half-hearted compliment the first time we had it."

"Koushiro says that Ken has an arrogance buried deep within the recesses of his mind," Tentomon said. It lacked the snarky quality that Sora and I had, and it wasn't a personal complaint—and it also made me a little tiny bit mad, but I was supposed to be hating on Ken so I forced myself to let it go—but it was a start.

"Oh, and Yamato was always planning everything out meticulously," Sora said.

"What's with that?" I asked in mock anger. "Where's the romantic spontaneity, the excitement?"

"That's what I asked him," she gasped. "And he said it's more romantic if it's planned."

"Whatever," I said rolling my eyes. I had to admit. It was pretty fun, letting loose like this. "Ken could have done with a dose of boundaries."

"The label thing?" she asked sympathetically.

"He tried to get me to label my bra drawer. Like my brother or dad needed to know where that was," I said.

She raised her eyebrow.

"He didn't either," I said with a sigh. "If that's what you're getting at. He didn't know which it was. He just wanted me to label everything, so he knew where to put stuff when cleaning."

"Yamato had that going for him at least," she said. "He let me do pretty much whatever to that guest room. I suppose I'll have to find somewhere else to live now…"

"Why not just go home?" I asked hesitantly.

"Because my parents suck," she said with a shrug. I figured there was a whole lot more to it than that, but I didn't want to pry. I'd let her tell me if she wanted to.

"I'm afraid I do not understand…what is it in particular that they 'suck' at?" Tentomon asked. He didn't notice the way her eyes tightened at his question. He really needed those lessons!

"Being a set of parents for one," she said. "Showing me what love is, is another thing. Being married. Talking to one another. Talking to me. They just suck at a lot of things."

"You know what love is though," Tentomon declared. "So it does not matter that they cannot show you."

"Do I?" she asked sadly. I felt a pang of sympathy. She was definitely a lot more distressed than I seemed to be…which worried me. I was prone to panic attacks and jumping to worst possible conclusions. She was the strong one.

"You would have never met Phoenixmon if you didn't," he said reasonably.

"But I thought I was in love when Biyomon made it to mega," she said. "I _was_ in love actually, no question about it. I just…I don't know how to keep that feeling. I thought I loved Taichi, but he ended up not handling it well and turned into a real jerk, and now Yamato, who I _know_ I loved, took that love and ended up joining the dark side. I'm a failure!"

"Hey," I snapped. "You don't need a guy. You've got me. You can love me and I'll be the greatest cheerleader you've ever seen. How's that?"

She looked at me as if I'd grown a second head, but, after a moment, she started laughing. Mission accomplished. I couldn't believe she was worrying about her crest. She had one of the easiest. She was a loving person naturally. I had to figure out honour. I still wasn't that familiar with it. Not that it mattered at that point. I had no digimon to need to worry about.

"But," she asked after a moment. "What does my crest even mean?"

Damn. I really thought I'd won that round…

"Well," I said. "What do you think it means?"

I hated it when people pulled that stunt, but I was hedging for time.

"Huh," she snorted, rolling her eyes at me. "I always looked to my mom for that. She was the most loving and caring individual I've ever met. Biyomon actually helped me to see that. And once I did, digivolving wasn't a problem for us, ever."

"Then why second guess it, if you've known it all along?" I asked really confused. Okay, so she thought her parents sucked at everything in marriage but… Oh. I knew before she even opened her mouth to explain.

"How can my mom really be my idol for love when she can't even stay with her husband? They're thinking of getting a divorce. If one was even necessary. I've seen my parents in the same room together twice over the last three years. _Twice_. How did they even discuss the need for a divorce? A divorce is like giving up, isn't it? She doesn't believe in that love anymore. She hardly even talks to me. She stopped really trying to get me back after two weeks. Dad hasn't even called to know I'm not at home. If my parents, my _mother_, can't figure love out, how can I possibly know anything about it? I modeled my love after hers, and now she's just giving it up. I can't do that, but what is there for me now?" she asked sounding broken.

I hadn't realized things were that bad. I talked to her dad periodically, whenever he had questions about the Digital World really—since I foolishly gave him my number for such instances seven years prior, while on a school field trip—but he'd never said anything. It was presumptuous of me to even think he would, I mean, it's pretty personal, but I figured I might have noticed _something_.

"I'm trying to work past it," she continued. "Trying to help others with their love problems, so that, maybe, I could solve my own, you know? Koushiro and I talked forever about Mimi and stuff, but it didn't help me so much. But it brought the two of us closer."

"Yes," Tentomon said. I jumped. I'd forgotten he was there; the slight humming of his wings had become so normal I didn't even register it. "He did talk about his new friendship. He seems quite pleased by it. He doesn't usually tell me about such things with such enthusiasm."

"He's happy to be my friend?" Sora asked with a small smile.

"Yes," Tentomon said. "Other than me, you are probably his closest friend."

"Already?" she asked shocked.

"He does not let people in much," Tentomon said as if it were no big deal, despite Sora's wide eyes, followed by a rather pleased smile. "He's never talked about his 'affections' with others before. Just me. I'm glad you made him talk to you. I have no experience with these matters and I do not like floundering in conversations."

It was so strange, hearing him talk about his and Koushiro's friendship. It was as if he analysed Koushiro every time they talked. Actually…he probably did. It seemed like something the socially challenged pair would do.

"So I'm his best friend?" she asked happily.

"No," Tentomon said, causing her smile to fall a fraction. "I am. You are next."

Sora and I laughed at the possessive tone, and suddenly things seemed lighter.

"So you're playing cupid for your best friend?" I teased her.

"Kind of," she said. "I was hoping to help Takeru as well. The poor kid needs it."

"For his crush on Hikari?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said grinning. "He's being so obvious about it. I don't understand why she hasn't seen. Or Willis even. He's like a freaky genius or something."

"Genius is not 'freaky'," Tentomon started to say, before we were suddenly thrown off of our feet as the ground shook violently.

"What was that?" I asked already panicking.

"What's happening?" Sora asked at the same time.

"It would appear that the Earth's tectonic plates are shifting causing what you humans refer to as an earthquake," Tentomon said.

The Earth shook again.

"It could also be the ground merely resonating with each of Machinedramon's footsteps," he added.

"Machinedramon?" Sora asked horrified.

"What makes you say that?" I asked hesitantly.

"Machinedramon is enclosing on us, quickly," Tentomon said.

"Oh God," Sora said. "We've got a rookie. With no way of getting any extra firepower."

"I could…fight him while you escape," Tentomon declared.

"No way," I said.

"Not a chance," Sora agreed.

"Koushiro asked me to keep you safe. I must do just that," he said, though I could hear the fear behind his words. He hadn't buried it nearly as deep as he'd thought.

"I wish Biyomon was here," Sora whimpered, looking at Machinedramon. She gasped, and I turned to see him. His eyes were trained on us. He'd found us.

"Go," Tentomon said. "Run."

"I'm not leaving without you," I told him, grabbing his arm, trying to pull him along with me. But it was too late. Machinedramon grinned—or I thought that was what he was trying to do.

"Found you," he said in his low, metallic voice. "But not Hikari."

"No, you won't find her either," I told him.

"Well, you won't be around to know that for certain, now will you?" he said, chuckling eerily.

"I hope so," I squeaked.

"Now, now," he said. "We both know how this ends. Just the three of you against me?"

"Yeah," I said. "We come out on top. Just like always."

"I would almost like to see that," he said. "But alas, I don't have the time. I have a digidestined to find."

"Okay," I muttered. "Okay, what's our plan?"

"We don't have one," Sora hissed. "This was a terrible idea. Taichi was right."

"You run, that's the plan," Tentomon said.

"Stop trying to be a martyr," I snapped. "You're coming with us. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you. And having to face Koushiro…"

"I am a digimon," Tentomon said. "I will become an egg again. It's hardly the same as you sacrificing yourself for me."

"It doesn't make it any better either," I told him.

"Eeny, meeny, minny moe, I choose you," Machinedramon said, his long claw pointing directly at me. Oh no. I could feel the panic growing uncontrollably in my chest. Tentomon was trying to push me aside, and Sora was trying to push him away too—because he was a stubborn bug.

I wasn't able to move at all.

"Dragon Fire!" Machinedramon shouted, bringing his right arm towards me. The mechanical drill started spinning and looked as though it could tear me to pieces in less than a second.

"Miyako!" Tentomon and Sora shouted at me.

"Come on," Sora yelled. "Stop standing there and move. NOW!"

"Go," I said in a wavering voice. "Run!" I said, turning and forcing myself to run out of the drill's path. I wasn't fast enough though.

I thought for sure the drill would hit me, but I got hit from a different direction.

"**Poromon digivolve to…Hawkmon!**"

"Get out of the way Miyako," Hawkmon told me. I was so shocked, I couldn't even greet him. Well, that and I was pulling myself to my feet after I'd been tackled.

"You're just going to have to digivolve," I told him, as we rushed over to Sora and Tentomon.

"I think you're right," he said softly. "But I don't think champion will be enough."

"Then go to ultimate, or mega," Sora suggested.

I flushed bright red. How embarrassing was it to have lectured her about knowing her crest, when I'd yet to even achieve ultimate? Very embarrassing.

"I can't," I squeaked. I saw the look Hawkmon was giving me, and conceded. "_We_ can't."

"Oh," she said.

"I could assist…" Tentomon said.

"Let me have a go first," Hawkmon said. "**Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquilamon!**"

"Oh, you've found another player," Machinedramon said mockingly. "I'll just have to try that much harder."

"You know what they say," Aquilamon said. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall! Blast Rings!"

Golden rings shot forwards as Aquilamon roared liked thunder. Machinedramon let them hit him and didn't even flinch when the contacted.

My heart dropped in that moment. We couldn't win.

"Giga Cannon!" Machinedramon shouted, aiming his cannons at Aquilamon, flying through the air. The super-dreadnaught class energy flew right by him as he swerved to the left, his back towards the enemy.

It hadn't crossed my mind that Machinedramon would attack him while his back was turned. No one does that. It's dirty fighting, the furthest you could get from a good, honourable fight.

But he did just that.

"Dragon Fire!"

His drill-like hand came towards my digimon partner, and hit his wing.

"Hey!" I screamed at him. "Be a mon. Fight fair. Or are you too worried you'll lose?"

"I have no need for rules," Machinedramon said.

"Where's your sense of honour!" I shouted out. "Or did your master forget to improve it with his X-virus?"

Machinedramon opened his mouth—probably to say some other thing to 'put me in my place'—but was distracted by the brightly glowing digimon in the sky. I'll admit to being distracted as well. Aquilamon was _glowing_. That meant I did it! I really did it.

"**Aquilamon digivolve to… Silphymon!**"

"Get him," I shouted. I was too excited to do much, besides becoming a one woman cheerleading squad. "You can do it. Woo!"

"Static Force!" Silphymon said, firing a ball of energy directly into Machinedramon's face. He winced! It wasn't much, and certainly not very damaging, but it was something to be proud of. Well, it was until Machinedramon glared, getting ready to fire off another attack.

"Static Force!" Silphymon shouted again. It was another direct hit, but it did nothing more than anger Machinedramon even more.

"Come on!" Sora and I shouted together.

"Astral Laser!" Silphymon tried, sending a duplicate of his body made purely of energy towards the giant machine.

"This isn't going to work," Silphymon yelled to me.

"We just…we need a plan," I said desperately. "We could do it. I know we could."

"As I keep saying," Tentomon said. "I can be of assistance. Koushiro asked me to. I can be a distraction. You hit him while his guard is down?"

"No. I want this to be a clean fight. He needs to know that fighting dirty isn't the only way to win. We can do this," I said firmly. "Try again, Silphymon!"

"B-but," Silphymon said.

"Prove it to him. We do things right," I said.

My inspirational speech was interrupted by a bright turquoise light shooting out of my digivice.

"Oh my goodness," I shouted happily. "Sora! Sora we can win, we can do this!"

"That's fantastic," she said smiling brightly. "We really can."

"I could have helped," Tentomon insisted.

"I know you could have," I said softly. "But I couldn't risk it. We couldn't lose you, Tentomon. Not when we couldn't be of any help while you were fighting."

"**Silphymon digivolve to… Valkyrimon!**"

I smiled brightly at my new digimon partner. He was a beautiful white humanoid bird, wearing golden armor with red tips on his wings. He was perfect. And he was mine. I would have squealed in excitement if I wasn't in awe like I was.

"Ready to taste defeat?" Valkyrimon asked Machinedramon. I winced a bit at his cocky attitude, but the look on Machinedramon's face was enough to scratch that disappointment. He was shocked…no it was better than that. He was actually afraid. I couldn't help but wonder what new arsenal of attacks Valkyrimon had, and if Machinedramon was right to fear him.

"Try it," Machinedramon said, though he didn't sound nearly as confident.

"Giga Cannon!" Machinedramon shouted.

"Laser Javelin!" Valkyrimon announced, summoning a javelin and launching it into the centre of the cannon blast. The javelin exploded, nullifying Machinedramon's attack.

Machinedramon was looking from side to side. We had him on the ropes. He was scared enough to be searching for an exit. He found one to the left, and was starting to back his way towards it.

"Don't let him get away," I yelled at Valkyrimon.

"On it," he said. "Punishing Storm!"

Tornados appeared around Machinedramon, effectively stopping him in his tracks. He was nervous. But he was going to cover it up. He planted his feet firmly on the ground, and turned his gaze on Valkyrimon.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking all of you with me," he declared. "Catastrophe—"

"Stop him, stop him now!" Tentomon yelled out. "He's going to self-destruct!"

My eyes widened, and I was building up a good scream, but Valkyrimon seemed to have other ideas.

"Feral Sword," he announced, pulling his sword out of his sheath, and ran Machinedramon through with it…but it didn't seem to do any damage whatsoever.

"Uh…" Sora said.

"He's brought all of Machinedramon's vital functions to a halt," Tentomon said relieved.

"That's…that's brilliant," Sora exclaimed.

"Machinedramon," Valkyrimon said. "Want to know a fun fact about Aurvandil's Arrow?"

He pulled an arrow out of a quiver, and readied it on his bow.

"It never misses."

And then he let the arrow fly.

It flew into his face mask, and Machinedramon seemed to short circuit. Sparks of electricity were coming off of him, and then he just shut down.

"Is that it?" Sora asked.

"I don't know…" I said.

"It's over," Valkyrimon said. He glowed turquoise once again, and shrank back down into to Hawkmon.

"He's no longer a problem," Hawkmon said.

"You were fantastic Hawkmon," I gushed, gathering him into my arms. I didn't want to ever let go of him now that he'd found me.

_**Toshiko:**_

"So what now?" I asked Hiroaki as he continued to stare down at the device in his hands. He didn't look up from the device but he seemed to register that I was indeed talking to him.

"Now we find Natsuko." He said, tearing his eyes away from the digivice and staring at me. "Unless you have a better plan."

"Well you're the leader," I told him. "But..."

"But what?" He shot.

"We don't have any idea where she is." I said.

"And that's why we're going to look." He said, heading for the door. "C'mon Wizardmon."

"But Hiroaki!" I called out as he stormed out of the apartment. I stood in the middle of the Takaishi's living room holding a rope attached to a ghost monster watching the only sensible person left in my life at that moment, turn into one who wasn't thinking about his actions.

"Should we follow him?" Rei asked, stepping toward the door as if she was able to walk all along, and that the wheelchair had just been for show. Although the grin on her face seemed to think differently, she looked so happy to be able to do this, and I couldn't really blame her. I didn't want to question her, or her abilities because I thought it might be disrespectful, but also I had a feeling she didn't understand any better than I did.

"I don't know." I told her flatly.

"Well if you're all going a totally different direction," Bakemon said, "Do you really have to take me with you?"

"Yes." I said.

"Well where is it that he's going?" Kae asked as if Bakemon hadn't said anything at all.

"I don't know." I told her. "He wants to find Natsuko, and I think he might be holding onto any threads, or chances that she'll be okay. He'll be checking all the places she liked to visit, or relatives' homes."

"But she's not okay?" Kae asked me.

"I do not know." I told her. "But I understand how he feels. I know exactly what it's like to be searching for a loved one—to find out if she's alive... or not."

"Sora?" Kae asked me.

"You're Sora's mom?" Rei asked me, "That's so cool! Taichi talks about her all the time."

I resisted the urge to ask her what he said—if she was okay, how she was doing... now wasn't the time to be worrying about my family troubles. I would have to push Sora to the back of my mind, just like I had to Haruhiko. I nodded curtly to her.

"We have more pressing matters to attend to." I told them both. "This 'Wisemon' creature that Bakemon speaks of is somewhere out there, and although he no longer serves a purpose in bringing the Digital Monsters to this World as the two have, as Wizardmon would put it, united... he is still a threat to the good Digital Monsters, and to the humans of Earth."

"So we're going after Wisemon?" Rei asked me.

I nodded, "We cannot allow him to harm the humans. None of them even understand what's going on or who he is." I said quickly, "Besides. He must be working for someone else—from what Bakemon has said he's just a transporter. Bakemon may only be a pawn in this game—but Wisemon must only be a rook. And we will work our way until we find the king. And then and only then will we find Natsuko, Ken, Taichi, Yamato... Sora."

"Well that's a pretty good plan." Kae smiled.

"There's just one problem." Bakemon added.

"How are we going to get Wisemon to tell us anything?" Rei asked, knowing instantly what Bakemon had been getting at.

"Well... I don't know." I admitted, "But even if that plan fails—we have to at least try to stop Wisemon... otherwise the people will get hurt. They don't understand!"

"What if we make them understand?" Rei suggested. "What if we go door to door and tell them what the deal is?"

"Like when Osamu used to go door to door selling cookies!" Kae grinned, "We can spread the word!"

"We can make everyone understand what the digimon are..." Rei said, "And then maybe _everyone_ will get a digimon partner like Hiroaki did."

"Then we can all team up and help the children!" I proclaimed.

"They really aren't children anymore." Kae pointed out. "They're heroes."

I nodded. It was true... My little Sora had grown up into a super hero.

"This is just really awkward for me, being here..." Bakemon sighed.

"Hush up." I shot at him, "We have some cookies to sell."

"Well that's just not true." Kae sighed.

"It was a metaphor." I explained.

"Oh..." Kae said.

"Let's go!" Rei cheered, skipping off, out the front door. I thought for a moment about bringing her wheelchair, but truly she didn't seem to need it with the way she was bouncing off the walls. I shook my head and left it, following her. We'd meet up with Hiroaki later after he came to his senses and stopped panicking about Natsuko. And once we were done filling the world in on the Digital Monsters we would be able to help Sora...

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** One dark master is down, but the digidestined are running ragged. Will Hikari be able to help Jou, or will her presence be better appreciated elsewhere? Can Koushiro locate Fanglongmon's lair in time for Taichi and the others to save the girls? And just what are Yoshie and Yuuko up to? Find out next time on Digimon Adventure 04!


	36. Puppet Show

**Y/N: **Woo! I was a mother and son duo this time around with Koushiro and Yoshie, I hope you enjoy their parts, and leave a review if you want. That's it from me!

**U/N:** Izzy :D Still hate him. but Kari is like, my favourite, so this was fun, and cute and a change of pace in a way-for me anyway-and you can see things are about to go down. Everything is building up :D it's exciting. Anyway, i hope you enjoy it... review please...?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 36: Puppet Show**

_**Koushiro:**_

I couldn't believe it. My mother had hacked into my computer.

My _mother_.

The woman who literally asked me weekly what her password was, who had to ask me whether or not an update was necessary for her computer, which was so out of date none of them really mattered anymore.

I just felt so violated.

And I needed a new password. Something my mother would never guess—though how she guessed my current one, I'd never know—maybe something to do with when I met Mimi, since my mother had no idea I felt human emotions in any form, and would never guess _Mimi_ was a legitimate password source. Granted, if things went well—and we survived this upcoming battle at all—she might guess at something. I felt as though things with Mimi were progressing nicely, though there were times I couldn't tell if she liked me or if she was mad at me.

I didn't like not knowing. It was an obsession of mine, knowing.

I also wanted to know how the hell my mother hacked my computer and sent me a document using my newest program. She wasn't supposed to do that. It broke all of the elemental laws of my parents. I had a list. I made it when I was nine and had just finished reading a riveting text book on physics, where I came across the original elemental laws. It seemed fun at the time…before I knew that such a list was a cause for ridicule at school.

Everything I did was a cause for ridicule when I was younger. Even joining that soccer team my mother forced me on—"To fulfill your physical education requirement, dear," she'd said—where I'd met Taichi. Luckily, my mind was big enough to entertain me during my early years. It still entertained me for long hours every day, when I wasn't trying to prove to Iori that I was the most sociable of the two of us.

I figured in all honesty, _he_ was more sociable than I was, but I found a thrill in disproving theories.

"She probably doesn't even know who you are," Taichi was telling Willis. They'd been arguing for a few minutes about my mother's document, and his lack of presence in it, while I was furiously trying to connect the vague impressions the others had given me about the Dark Ocean. It was near impossible for me to incorporate it into my make-shift map of the "Dark Digital Earth" as Taichi had dubbed it in one of his earlier argument points.

He kept glaring at me in between points, and it made me nervous. I couldn't figure out just what I'd done wrong—because as far as I knew, I hadn't done anything other than discover Fanglongmon's location!—but he did _not_ seem happy with me.

Thinking anything was actually proving to be a sport at the moment. Between my utter exhaustion—I'd pulled an all-nighter the night before this mess, and only caught three and a half hours sleep before Mimi showed up at my door, effectively waking me up for the day—and the cut on my shoulder it was hard to process my thoughts. Well, harder than usual. Not _hard_, per say. I was still thinking more than Daisuke and the other band of misfits that joined the dark side, so that was something. My shoulder was burning, each time I jostled it a sharp pain shot down my arm to my fingertips making typing a pain—literally. I was pretty sure it was getting infected. Rolling around in the dirt and fighting against digital foes was _not_ the most clean of jobs, and I didn't carry a first aid kit, or a water bottle. And I could've really used some water right then.

If this was how Taichi thought all the time—cloudy, taking a real effort—I could not blame him for not thinking nearly as often as he should before acting.

It was torture.

"Koushiro," Willis said, sounding as though he'd been repeating himself for awhile.

"Hey, snap out of it," Taichi said snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"You have my attention," I told them. "What do you need?"

Terriermon started giggling.

"He didn't hear the question," Agumon said simply.

"Any of the nine times it was asked," Terriermon laughed.

"Are you feeling okay?" Agumon asked, and I gave him—what I thought was—a reassuring smile. His face grew more worried and I knew I hadn't succeeded.

"M'fine," I said, shaking my head, and chastising myself for the use of improper grammar. "Help me up."

Taichi rolled his eyes, but took hold of my good arm and pulled up. I nearly dropped my computer during the action, but I was on my feet.

"We're leaving," I said. "We have to go fast. We won't last much longer at this point."

"We'll be fine," Taichi said. "It's the Dark _Digital_ Earth now. We barely ever needed sleep in the Digital World."

"Yes," Willis said wryly. "But _Earth_ is in the new title as well, and on Earth it's generally a good idea to restore your body's energy by sleeping six to eight hours each night. This is our second non-stop night. We're due to crash by like three in the afternoon tomorrow."

"Or earlier," I said thinking about visiting my mother _just_ so I could have a nap, but thought better of it. We had a tight schedule. I just wanted this over with, so I could kiss Mimi like I promised Sora I would—and have been periodically thinking about doing since it was mentioned, when I wasn't trying to fight for my life or figure out the next step anyway—and then sleep for at the very least twelve hours before getting my shoulder looked at.

It sounded like a brilliant plan to me.

Except we couldn't accomplish anything with just two digimon and three digidestined—one of which leant his digimon to his new friend and protégé in an unsuspected act of kindness leaving himself next to useless in a fight should it arise. We wouldn't be able to take down a single Dark Master, let alone Daemon, Dragomon or Fanglongmon. LadyDevimon, maybe we could handle, but it would be much more intriguing to capture and interrogate her for clues of the kidnap victims' whereabouts.

It was hard to believe that just yesterday afternoon things were normal, peaceful.

I missed yesterday.

But I got Tentomon back today, so despite all the pain, tiredness, confusion, world unions, and enemies of every size and power level, it wasn't _so_ bad.

"So we're headed to camp then?" Taichi asked.

"No," I said looking at him strangely. "We were summoned by our mothers. We have to go there first. Maybe we could get a car…"

"Woah," Taichi said holding his hands out in front of him. "Slow down. We're going to save those girls. We can talk to our _mothers_ afterwards."

He was upset with his mother, I realized, because of her easy acceptance of Daisuke, and how she treated him like a second son. But wasn't a car a perfectly reasonable request?

"Logically, my plan is the best course of action," I told him.

"Logically, it's stupid," he said mocking me. I glared at him, and he glared right back. His eyes flickered to the goggles that I still had dangling around my neck.

I couldn't bring myself to wear them on my head. That would be like accepting the roll of leader, and taking it away from Taichi. He was still _my_ leader. I didn't care who wore the goggles. I did whatever Taichi requested of me—short of giving him the goggles of course. I wasn't going to do that—and wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had to do the requesting as well. I was the logistics department, the researcher, the mathematician. I was whatever we needed me to be to figure out what needed to be done. I was the brains _behind_ the operation. What the hell was I supposed to do while I was in charge? Tell Taichi to figure things out? No. That was all I was good at, the only thing that only _I_ could contribute. That was the only thing I wanted to do.

Well, that and kiss Mimi. The more tired I got, the harder it was to keep that off my mind.

But I still had a lot of other things to think about to distract me: What was Fanglongmon's plan? What defense does he have guarding the girls we needed to rescue? What the hell did Iori think he was doing following Kurayami? How on Earth (or Dark Digital Earth I suppose) did my mother hack my computer? Why was Taichi so angry with me all of a sudden? Were Sora and Miyako alright? Why did Daemon want _only_ Ken? Why was I one of the few that accepted Michael at all—_me_, the social reject?

A lot to ponder, but mostly the question I asked myself was this: When is Dragomon going to start his plan, when was he going to make _his_ first move, now that Fanglongmon had made his?

I had no answers, and every guess I had lead to more questions.

And just what was it that _Gennai_ was planning? His leader skills needed work. Maybe even more work than my own—the reluctant leader that pretended he wasn't one—and that was saying something. Mimi had been yelling at him a lot lately, and I couldn't bring myself to yell at him the same way, despite my frustrations, because I kind of knew how it felt to try and get something accomplished, but have everyone else trying to keep you from doing it, even though you _know_ it's right.

Like just now, and finding our mothers.

"Clearly one of us lacks any common sense," I said.

"And it isn't me," Taichi and I said at the same time. I groaned. Why was he being so difficult? Another question I had to add to my never ending list.

"We'll just start walking," Willis decided. "Whatever happens, happens."

"That's just stupid," Taichi said, as I said "That plan is entirely illogical and lacks any form of planning."

I got an eye roll from both of them, and laughter from Terriermon. Agumon, however, seemed to be on my team, so I felt a lot better about things.

"Why don't we go find your mother?" he asked, making me grin like a fool. _Take that, Taichi. From your own digimon._

"Because we don't have time. I shouldn't have left at all. Hikari is with Gennai, and I don't know how that's going over," he said. Knowing Mimi was in that group, probably not well. Throw in Takeru, the overly optimistic, and Jou the pessimistic expecting father and a couple of digimon who no longer know whose orders to follow—Gennai, their 'General' or their digidestined partners—and you have quite the ragtag group.

Not that we were much better.

Willis started walking, looking pointedly at Terriermon to get him to follow him. Apparently _I_ was the only leader that wasn't able to get his way by using the goggles. They were kind of ignored, what with Willis and Taichi being such natural leaders and me…not.

I dragged myself along behind then, receiving a sympathetic look from Agumon. I didn't particularly _want_ sympathy, but it was awfully nice of Agumon to notice that I was in fact nearly dead on my feet. Taichi was next to Willis, talking about Hikari again. I noted Taichi's reluctance, and Willis' awkward nervousness, and wondered why they were talking about her if neither _wanted_ to.

"Gennai will protect her," Willis was saying.

"Takeru is with her too," I pointed out, joining the conversation, hoping it would keep me awake. "He'd never let anything happen to her."

"You're right," Taichi said grumpily, before muttering "For once" under his breath.

I honestly didn't have the energy to argue that I, in fact, was right about ninety percent of the time, and that the opposite was true for him, so I let it go. He was looking at the goggles again. I shifted my gaze away from him, hoping he wasn't glaring at me anymore.

"So…" Willis said slowly, drawing the word out. "Yamato joined the dark side?"

"It appears that way," I said.

"He wanted this," Taichi said. "But I can't believe he's evil, if that's what you're implying. He's my best friend. I don't know what the hell is going on in his mind, but he's _not_ evil."

"He's not Ken," I reasoned. "He's not easily swayed."

"What's Ken got to do with this?" Willis asked.

"He's the opposite of Yamato in this," I explained. "He's the most easily swayed out of our entire team."

"Because of the Dark Spore," Taichi defended him.

"The Dark Spore that has been removed in its near entirety?" I asked, eyebrow raised. "He hasn't had a complete Dark Spore in his body for seven years. He merely has traces of it. Enough to remind him of his darker period as the Digimon Kaiser, in any case. Enough to remind him just how it felt to be in possession of that much power, to rule over the weaker creatures and to rid himself of any and everyone that stands between him and ultimate success. He did unforgiveable things once, but we _still_ forgave that. He might have—on a subconscious level—realized that if we could do it once, we'd forgive it again. He wanted this, or else Fanglongmon wouldn't have got him."

"You're saying that he wants to be evil," Willis asked wryly. "And that's why he's been helping us save the Digital World."

"I'm saying that Fanglongmon preys on the weakest point in the mind. He got through to Daisuke, most likely because of his desperate need to be wanted, to lead. He and Taichi had argued about that not long before he disappeared, and everyone was looking to Sora and Taichi for guidance, correct?" I said. Willis and Taichi both nodded. "Therefore he felt as though he'd lost the competition, lost his place. Fanglongmon simply offered him what he wanted, and in his moment of hesitation, Fanglongmon took residence inside his mind. This is all speculation of course, but based on Gennai's information, this seems the most likely reason."

"That doesn't explain Ken though," Willis pointed out.

"I'm getting there," I said, stopping to yawn into my good shoulder. I couldn't use my bad hand, and I was carrying a computer with the other. I hoped they didn't notice my injury had gotten worse…

"Is it because Fanglongmon found the small recess in his mind that still thrived on the power of the Dark Spore, and stretched it out?" Agumon asked excitedly.

"Yes," I said happily. I hadn't expected _Agumon_ to be the one to guess at it. It was a pleasant surprise, especially with the look Taichi had on his face when his digimon partner—who was known to be less intelligent than even him—got it before he did. "The need was there. Fanglongmon wouldn't have been able to create that need. It had to be there, and he focused on it. He made the part of Ken that wanted it bigger. He no longer cares about a single one of us, including Miyako, his girlfriend of nearly seven years. I have doubts that even Wormmon is on his list of priorities right now. He was nothing more than a mere 'insect' the last time the Kaiser was around. He'll seem like nothing more now."

"Do you not like Ken?" Taichi asked bluntly.

"He's grinding on my nerves," I said passively.

"Then this is probably all wrong. You just don't want him to have been brainwashed," he said shrugging.

"I'm not wrong Taichi," I said angrily. "Ken is arrogant and prideful and incredibly intelligent…in one corner of his mind. Fanglongmon found that to be worth notice."

"So you're just jealous that he found Ken's 'small corner of intelligence' worthwhile and ignored yours," Taichi surmised.

"He tried, okay?" I shouted at him. "He asked me whether I wanted to go where people would actually care what I had to say. Where my intelligence would actually be useful, and nobody would take me for granted or put the weight of the world on my shoulders time and time again. But I said "No." He couldn't have me Taichi, because I was loyal to you and to Mimi and to the rest of the team. I. Said. No."

There was an astounding silence. Both Willis and Taichi were staring at me with wide eyes. Terriermon hid himself behind his partner's legs. Agumon rested his clawed hand on my bad arm. I tried not to wince at his kind gesture.

"Ken didn't," I said angrily. "But he could have if he really wanted to."

I heard snickering, and whipped around to face him.

"There is nothing funny about this," I snapped.

"I didn't say it was," he said defensively.

"Who laughed?" I asked.

"No one," he said slowly.

I groaned. I was starting to hallucinate. This did not bode well for my brain…

But I heard it again.

And it wasn't any of my friends. I'd been facing this time. I gulped and shifted my eyes around the surrounding area. There were trees and road signs, but no person.

"Good God," Taichi complained. "Koushiro's gone loopy. Nothing good's gonna come from that."

"A third of the group's intelligence is gone," Willis said solemnly. "Mine's the only substantial bit we've got left."

"I'm going to take offense to that," Taichi said with a laugh.

"Hearing things are we?"

"Who are you?" I asked.

"No one is there," Taichi said. "It's not funny anymore, Koushiro. Are you okay?"

"Boo," the voice whispered behind me. I turned abruptly and ended up facing a tree.

"Oh no," I said. "Back away…"

"You're okay. Nothing's there," Taichi said putting a hand on my good shoulder. It would have been incredibly kind of him…had I truly been going crazy.

"Are you sure of that?" the voice said louder.

"Puppetmon," Agumon gasped.

"Oh," Taichi said. He didn't apologize for insisting insanity, but I didn't care at the moment. An X virus infected mega level Dark Master was hiding behind a tree, and we had two small, unintimidating rookie level digimon.

"Terriermon," Willis said, noting the same problem I had. "Now."

But when I turned to see if he was digivolving…I saw that he was frozen in place.

"What—What's happening?" Terriermon asked surprised, as his arms and shoulders began to move against his will.

"Dance for me, won't you?" Puppetmon said with his whiny laugh. His fingers were moving in time with Terriermon's odd movements. He'd made him into a puppet!

"How are you faring Agumon?" Taichi asked his partner.

"Not much better," he said. His head and clawed hands were shifting at odd angles. It didn't look comfortable in the slightest.

"Now what?" Willis asked slowly.

"We fight him ourselves?" Taichi suggested tentatively. He didn't look too thrilled by the idea. For that matter, I wasn't either.

"That is not a viable option," I pointed out.

"Puppet Pummel!" Puppetmon cried out, drawing our attention back to him…only to frantically try to avoid a large wooden hammer. Willis—who was too my right—went to one side, and Taichi—on my left—went the opposite way. I pushed Agumon as best I could towards Willis, and Taichi tackled Terriermon. But we all made it out safely…so it was worth it.

"No!" Puppetmon whined. "Stay still. I can't win if you don't play fair."

"You can't win anyway," Taichi said, though his tone voiced his doubt.

"I'm gonna get you now," Terriermon announced. "You can't make a puppet outa me!"

"I already did," Puppetmon said smugly. "So there. Puppet Pummel!"

"Run," Willis said, nudging me and Agumon to the side.

"Puppet Pummel!"

"Now," Willis said. Agumon and I nodded and started moving, slowly at first. Agumon looked over at Taichi a little forlornly, but shook it off. We needed to move before Puppetmon actually caught us.

"Puppet Pummel!"

There's nothing like an adrenaline rush to give you that second—or fourth maybe in my case—wind, while running for your life.

"Keep going," Willis shouted.

"But what about Taichi?" Agumon asked.

"Terriermon and he will have to take care of each other," Willis said solemnly.

"They'll be fine," I said. "Taichi's always got a plan."

_**Hikari:**_

The pink light that surrounded us made me feel right at home—partly because it felt good to be swept off my feet—literally, because I was just so tired, but also I felt like I was lighting up because of my crest. Lopmon didn't seem quite as pleased as I was to be being carried over top of Japan. She was fidgeting in my arms as I held her close.

I loved Lopmon, I really did, but I couldn't help but feel sad as I remembered holding Gatomon this very same way. But now she was gone... Piedmon had her.

"What's that?" Lopmon asked me.

I looked down to where she was pointing and said, "That's a library."

"That's not what I meant." Lopmon giggled. "Right there."

I looked down, searching for something she might be pointing to as we shot across the city in the giant tube of pink light.

"The light!" Lopmon cried out, trying to help me. She wiggled out of my arms and climbed down my leg and reached into my pocket, pulling out my digivice which was glowing a light pink colour. "Why is it doing this?"

"I... don't know." I admitted as I took the digivice from her. Was it because I had been thinking about Gatomon so much? I didn't know the answer to it in any case so I put it back in my pocket.

I looked to the others who all seemed to be off in their own world. Mieyomon was focusing on directing the large pillar of pink light in where to go, which made sense, but I wasn't sure why Mimi was in her own world. She was watching the landscape shoot by as if it were a very boring movie that she had been forced to watch. Jou was in a state of shock it seemed as Gomamon clung to his waist. Patamon seemed to be having a great time with Takeru and the other digimon though as the two were spinning around and doing summersaults in the air. I laughed at them and smiled when Takeru noticed I was watching. He smiled nervously back and then continued playing with Patamon, Demiveemon and Otamamon who were all having some sort of competition. Gennai was in the center of us all looking as though he were trying very hard to look dignified, which, considering he was flying in a pink tube magical sparkling light and holding a giant white and pink egg, he was doing surprisingly well.

As we floated above a lake everything seemed to be going fine... until...

"What's that...?" Gomamon asked, looking through squinted eyes as he dug his claws into Jou to keep safe.

"What's what?" Patamon asked. "Oh I see it. It's kind of pretty." He was staring behind me so I spun around quickly to see what they were looking at. I was shocked to see a ball of what seemed to be fire move quickly toward us.

"That can't be good." Lopmon said in shock.

"Lopmon is probably right..." Demiveemon surmised.

"Meiyomon!" Mimi called out. "Do something!"

Meiyomon turned quickly toward the ball and shot himself out of the pillar of light and into the air in front of us. He floated there for a moment as the pillar lost all control and Meiyomon waved his hand forming a barrier around him. As the ball of fire hit his barrier it caused a loud and fiery explosion. I found myself screaming and throwing my hands over my ears as Lopmon climbed to my shoulders to get ready to protect me.

I looked to Meiyomon who was falling through the sky, plummeting toward the waters below.

"Patamon!" Takeru cried out, as Otamamon scrambled through the air to wiggle himself into Takeru's arms. "Get him!"

"Right!" Patamon cried out. "**Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!**" Angemon shot from the pillar of pink light which had stalled, stopped moving completely, to save Meiyomon. He was diving after him, catching him right before he landed in the water.

"Yes!" Takeru cheered happily.

"What _was_ that?" Mimi asked Gennai.

"I do not know." He admitted. "It was presumably an attack from a nearby enemy digimon."

"Well let's show this enemy digimon what we're made of!" Mimi cheered, looking around at the digimon we had left. She looked at Lopmon for a moment before remembering that Willis wasn't here, and then she turned to Jou and Gomamon. "Are you going to help Angemon?"

Jou didn't answer, he was staring at the sky, ignoring us all.

Gomamon looked to Jou for confirmation before turning to Mimi and saying, "I'll help!"

"ANGEMON!" Takeru screamed suddenly, "LOOK BEHIND YOU!"

We all spun around to see Angemon flying back toward us with Meiyomon in his arms, seemingly unconscious. I felt bad seeing him like that... he was Iori's younger brother—and Iori was trying to save those closest to him, and now here he Meiyomon was, in pain... I only hoped that he'd be better by the time Iori came back around to us. Following Angemon was another ball of flame.

I watched in suspense as Angemon flew straight up to avoid the blast. Relief washed over me as he saved himself before the realization that the ball was now headed straight for us hit me.

"What do we do?" Mimi gasped. "Gennai! Do something!"

"Like what?" He asked in shock. "What can_ I_ do?"

Takeru flew through the air, past Gennai and toward Mimi. "Ready?" he asked her as he grabbed her waist.

"Ready for what?" She asked in shock.

"For this." He said as he literally threw Mimi downward. I heard her scream as she flew in slow motion down the anti-gravity pink light. Takeru moved to Jou next and threw him along with Gomamon which seemed to bring Jou to his senses suddenly. Next he moved to Gennai who pushed Takeru off of him and followed Mimi and Jou himself.

Takeru came toward me quickly. We both looked toward the ball of fire which was close now.

"You can thank me later." Takeru said as he grabbed my hand and jumped out of the pink light, dragging Lopmon and I with him. I tried not to scream as we fell toward the water from where we had been in the sky. I watched over my shoulder as the ball of flames hit the pink pillar and shattered it. My eyes scanned the sky for Jou, Mimi, Gennai and Gomamon but I couldn't find them—they just didn't seem to be anywhere—had they been hit? Were they falling now that the pink light had dissipated?

"MARCHING FISHES!" I heard Gomamon scream, drawing my attention toward the water below as colourful fish seemed to pop out of the black water around us. I looked to my left to see Jou and Gomamon on a raft of fish with Mimi and Gennai on a similar one not far behind.

I closed my eyes as Takeru and I landed roughly on the fish. It was gross—I couldn't deny that—they were wet and slippery and well... fish—but I couldn't help but be grateful due to the fact that they had literally just saved my life.

"I never thought I'd get to use this technique again!" Gomamon laughed, "I feel so honoured to be helpful for once!" Mimi and Takeru laughed at him, which I didn't understand—I figured it must have been something before I came around to help them out.

"Oh hey!" Otmamon laughed excitedly as he began to speak quietly to the fish.

But other than Otamamon no one spoke as the fish swam us through the waters. The shore seemed so distant, which was rather upsetting. I didn't want to be in this water any longer than I had to be... the Dark Ocean had always had connection with me, just as I had with it, and it wasn't something I was proud of, and so to be sitting on fish who literally _lived_ in the dark ocean was not something I was happy to be doing. But at the same time, at least they were keeping the water from touching me.

But if all the water in the world had turned into Dark Ocean water I'd have to be sure to not eat seafood ever—EVER again.

"Just let me in!" Gomamon tried. "Please? The fish are getting tired Jou—I can swim faster and give them a break!"

"No!" I growled, "You're not getting wet!"

"Why not?" Gomamon whined.

"The Dark Ocean water could have some sort of strange effect on you. I can't have you turning evil... I need some stability." Jou responded.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mimi and Gomamon shot accusingly as one.

Jou ignored them and stared down at the water around him.

Demiveemon was sitting on Takeru's shoulder whispering to him quietly. I looked down to Lopmon who was playing with her ears absentmindedly and staring off into the distance with a frown on his face.

"You miss him?" I asked her.

"What?" She asked. "Oh... no. Not Willis. I'll see him soon enough."

"Then who do you miss?" Takeru asked her, moving closer to sit next to us. "Terriermon? Or...? Who else is there?"

"Your mommy?" Demiveemon asked.

"Do digimon even have mothers?" Takeru asked.

Demiveemon shrugged his shoulders, "I've been alive a long time. I have no idea. Don't remember."

"Not my mom." Lopmon said, looking up at us all. "I don't know. But I've been missing her a lot more lately... I think it's time to figure out what—or who it is that I'm looking for." Lopmon said with a very determined air about her.

"Well whenever you're ready," I told her with a smile. "My promise still stands. I will help you find her no matter what... whoever she is."

"You're a good friend Hikari." Lopmon said hugging me. I hugged her back, smiling.

"So you don't miss Willis at all?" Demiveemon asked with a grin.

"Well maybe a little!" Lopmon laughed. "But not Terriermon. I like not having to argue _all_ the time." Lopmon smiled up at me again, and I just smiled back. It felt weird to be having touching moments while sailing through the Dark Ocean waters after having just been attacked by an unseen foe while Meiyomon was somewhere, presumably hurt, or even dying as Angemon did... whatever Angemon was doing.

"Do you?" Takeru asked me, and then seeing the confused look on my face he added. "Willis, do you miss him?"

"What?" I gasped, "Oh... I... yeah, I guess—Yes. Yes I do."

"You don't sound so sure." He told me, raising his eyebrows at me.

"I'm sure." I said flatly.

"So you and Willis are a thing now..." He said simply as if it weren't awkward at all, which wasn't true—it was very awkward for me to talk about for some reason. "Do you... love him?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that, because I didn't know exactly what love was... I'd have to be sure to talk to Sora about it later. "I don't know..."

"Well it's yes or no." Lopmon said slowly, "You've got a fifty percent chance of being right."

"I..." I tried.

"Well...?" Lopmon and Takeru said together.

"I think I do." I concluded finally. Which was true of course—that was indeed what I thought... and I honestly hoped it was true. "I don't know—it's complicated." I laughed nervously, "Why couldn't _we _just be in love Takeru? Talking to you is so easy! We would be a great couple!"

Takeru stared at me, his mouth open a little, eyes wide. I wasn't sure what I had said though—what had I done wrong? He shook his head quickly and said, "Yeah," before laughing nervously, "Wouldn't that be funny? Us liking each other? Pshh!"

I could see that the situation had suddenly become awkward for him so I nodded and looked back to the others.

"Oh hey!" Jou said suddenly, "Mimi—you're supposed to call Koushiro when we know where we're going."

"Right!" She cried out suddenly, forgetting her promise. She pulled out her cell phone quickly and dialled Koushiro's number. "Hi!" She smiled as he answered. "We know where to go. It's Pine—Oh you already know? Why didn't you call me? You forgot? You forgot to call me?! But—No! No I did not! Whatever Koushiro Izumi. I will meet you there." She snapped her phone shut and looked to the rest of us. "Why does nothing ever go right for me? My mother's being stupid, Koushiro's being stupid, everyone's being stupid and—where the hell is Palmon?!" She cleared her throat and forced a smile. "So who's hungry?"

"ME!" Takeru let out an exasperated yelp as he fell back onto the raft of fish. Mimi, Lopmon, Gomamon and I laughed at him but Jou and Gennai remained perfectly serious.

"There's Angemon!" Gomamon cried out suddenly, cutting into our laugh as he pointed to the sky. He was right. Angemon was diving through the sky toward us. I could see the relief in Takeru's eyes as Angemon came back safe, but I didn't feel the same. Meiyomon was nowhere to be seen.

Angemon swooped down next to Takeru and I, hovering in the air. "Takeru, I think you should come see this." He reached his hand out for Takeru to take.

"What happened to Meiyomon?" Mimi asked sharply. "Where is he?"

"A digimon known as Wisemon was attacking us." Angemon stated.

"Wisemon?" Gennai asked sharply, suddenly interested, still clutching the egg tightly. "He's working with Fanglongmon! Did you destroy him?"

"No, he got away." Angemon said simply.

"Of course he did..." Gennai muttered, "We've been chasing him for years, he's one of Fanglongmon's leading minions—he's practically a god! He has so many tricks up his sleeve and it's impossible to destroy him."

"We'll just add him to the list..." Mimi said monotonously.

"Yes, well," Angemon said, "Wisemon told Meiyomon that his siblings are in danger and Meiyomon rushed off to save them.

"What? So he just left us here?" Mimi growled.

"It's not the first time he just up and ditched us." Gomamon said simply. Jou elbowed him lightly. "What?" Gomamon asked, "It's true!"

"Takeru, come with me." Angemon said. Takeru nodded and stood shakily on the fish raft and then leapt into Angemon's arms. "Are you coming?" He asked me.

I looked to Jou and Mimi and then to Takeru. "But—where will we meet up?" I asked Mimi and Jou.

"The camp." Mimi said. "We'll have the fish take us to shore and then we'll take a car or something—maybe grab a pizza on the way." She was joking of course... I think. "Just go straight there though. We all need to get there together... even if we're all spitting apart."

"Right." I smiled at her, standing up with Lopmon in my arms. "Good luck guys!" I said as I jumped into Angemon's arms.

"I'm staying!" Demiveemon said quickly, leaping back onto the fish raft. "I'll protect Jou and Mimi!"

"I'll help!" Otamamon, who was still on the raft cheered.

"Looks like we're in good hands then." Mimi smirked.

I smiled at them all as I looked over Angemon's shoulder just as he flew off. I waved to the others as the fish raft Takeru and I had been on melted into one with the others. Mimi and Gomamon waved farewell, but again Jou and Gennai just looked sad, solemn.

I turned to look ahead as Takeru asked, "So what's so important?" to Angemon who was flying quickly across the sky.

"You'll see." He said.

We didn't talk until we had made it all the way to the shore, but Angemon didn't stop there, he flew down the streets until we came across a very dead looking area of town. It looked as if every sort of natural disaster that could possibly happen, had indeed happened. Right here.

Angemon landed and shifted back to Patamon instantly, floating to rest on Takeru's head.

"So what is it?" Lopmon asked. "If this is your interpretation of something important then there's something wrong with your head—oh wait sorry... I'm used to insulting people living with Terriermon..."

"He has a point though," Takeru said, "Patamon, what is it?"

"Takeru?" We all spun around quickly and gasped at the sight of Takeru's father. He looked tired, worn out and depressed. His clothes and face were covered in dirt and his hair was a mess, and he looked like he had just been in an apocalyptic war, but most of all he looked like he had been crying.

"D-dad?" Takeru asked, stepping forward and hugging his dad. "I was actually starting to get worried! This place is a mess! We're working on fixing it though—"

"Have you seen your mother?" Mr Takaishi asked flatly.

"No—why?" Takeru asked quickly.

"She's gone—I don't know where she is."

Takeru's face fell instantly as worry and sadness washed over him. "D-Do you know... anything?"

His father shook his head. "I'm searching though... I promise I'll find her."

"No." Takeru said. "You need to stay safe! I'll find her! I have a digimon to protect me."

"Actually..." Mr Takaishi said, "So do I." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out before holding out his hand and showing us a digivice.

"What?" Takeru gasped, "You have a digivice—a digimon? Since when!?"

"Since roughly an hour ago." Mr Takaishi said. "He's just over there." He pointed behind us causing us both to spin around quickly to see a familiar digimon with a pointed hat and a cape. "It's the same one that was haunting the video—"

"Wizardmon!" I let a cry escape my lips as I grew more excited. I ran toward him, leaving Takeru and Mr Takaishi behind. As I came closer to him I tossed Lopmon into the air and fell to my knees to hug him. Lopmon landed on my back smoothly as I held Wizardmon tightly. "Wizardmon!"

"H-Hikari?" He stuttered. "What are you... is... is Gatomon...?" I pulled away from him and shook my head.

"No..." I admitted. I could see the sadness on his face as I said it. I smiled though, "But I'll find her. And now that you're partnered with Mr Takaishi I'll know just where to find you when I do. She'll be pretty happy to see you!"

"She hasn't forgotten then?" Wizardmon asked.

I shook my head. "Of course not!" I insisted. "When you find a best friend, you're best friends for life Wizardmon. You and her were—and still are best friends."

"What does that make you?" Wizardmon asked. "If I'm her best friend then—"

"I'm her best friend too silly." I smiled at him.

"You can have more than one best friend?" Lopmon asked. "Does that mean Terriermon is my best friend? Ew..." She laughed a little, and then asked me, "Who is your second best friend then Hikari?"

"Takeru." I said simply.

"Not Willis?" She asked.

"Him too!" I insisted. "I have a lot of best friends." I told her.

"Like me?" She asked.

"Like you." I smiled. I stood up suddenly and looked back to Takeru and his father. "Let's get back." I said.

"I will come with you then." Wizardmon smiled, following along behind me.

As we came closer I heard them arguing though.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Takeru snapped. "I'm eighteen years old!"

"You're not old enough to be making rash decisions like this!" Mr Ishida argued. "You're still a child!"

"No I'm not." Takeru said, "You lost your chance to tell me what to do when you walked out on me and mom. You're still my father—but you're _not_ my dad. You never have been and you never will be."

"You're mother and I are dating." Mr Ishida said.

I could see the shock on Takeru's face at these words, but he shook them off. "So? Willis and Hikari are dating, but that doesn't mean Willis is suddenly my best friend too—you're not my dad until you can prove yourself as one and I'm going to go save the world—save my friends, my brother, and my mother whether you like it or not. So if you don't agree—too bad." Takeru spun on the spot and looked to me, "let's go." He grabbed my hand and began dragging me.

"It was nice seeing you Mr Ishida—and you too Wizardmon!" I said as I waved over my shoulder.

"I'm sorry Takeru, I thought this would be good for you to see—but I was wrong." Patamon said from Takeru's head.

"No." Takeru said, "You were right. Now I know that I have to save my mother... because no one else here is capable of doing so." He sent a glare over his shoulder toward his father and then looked on ahead, his expression lightening instantly. "Wanna get some pizza?"

I looked in front of us at a pizza shop with a broken front door due to the attack.

I looked to the clock tower nearby and then out to the water toward Mimi and Jou, and then back to Takeru. "Sure." I laughed as he dragged me toward the front door.

_**Yoshie:**_

"This place doesn't look too bad," I commented, as we got out of Yuuko's car and walked towards the door of the flower shop. The windows were all intact, and the door wasn't broken down. It was open, just a little, but it wasn't torn apart, I took that as a good sign.

"Be on your guard though," Yuuko said. "Just in case."

I tightened my grip on my pot handle. It would need replacing. I'd done battle with it loads of times already, and it was dented so badly it would be a pain to try and use it for cooking. Perhaps, when this was over, I would be able to mount it on our living-room wall, as a reminder that I too could help take out the bad digimon, not just Koushiro. We _finally_ had something in common.

"What is it exactly that we're looking for?" I asked, brandishing my pot as I peeked around the door—like they do in those police drama television shows—before declaring the flower shop "Clear."

There was some damage done to the inside, but I supposed that the digimon didn't find it very amusing to destroy a shop when there was much livelier prey running and screaming as they tried to get away. Yes. Humans were more 'fun' to chase than potted plants.

The walls were lined with shelves, the shelves decorated with flower arrangements and various potted plants. I noted that the display arrangements were made of everlasting flowers, rather than fresh cut blooms. It made for less expensive damages, that's for sure, and they still looked beautiful when they were scattered on the floor.

"Herbs," Yuuko said. "I know she has a section of them. We were just talking about them last week. She said there'd be plenty of parsley if I wanted to try baking some into bread."

"That actually…almost normal for you," I said in surprise.

"Yeah, Hikari suggested it," Yuuko said sheepishly. "I wanted to do something with parsley…she wanted to be able to ingest it."

"You'll have to invite me over for some when this is over," I told her.

"Yeah, and we can share our tale with the children," she said confidently.

I was glad for that confidence. She never second guessed it anymore. She was determined to just not think of any negative possibilities, and I found myself leaning on that, thriving in it. Koushiro would be fine. He was smart. Probably the smartest person I knew.

And if he'd just email me back or call me or something to let me know that he was fine…well, that would just be very much appreciated.

I headed over to the far wall. There was a lot of greenery displayed—a good place to look for herbs I thought. Yuuko decided to search the storeroom. There were a lot of aesthetically pleasing bonsai trees, each one unique in both shape and container, a few potted plants that had yet to bloom. And a large bin of decorative foliage that I'd seen Mrs. Takenouchi use in bouquets—mostly when Masami was feeling romantic and bought me flowers on his way home. I really ought to have come out to this little shop more often. There was a lot of beautiful stuff I could spend hours looking over. I simply did not have the time to do so at that point. I had to force myself away from one particularly beautiful bonsai in a pink, glass container in order to keep searching for the herbs.

The bin of foliage rustled though, stopping me in my tracks. I poked it with my pot, ready to attack if necessary. Fortunately, I only saw some lighter green leaves when I searched it, and one particularly gorgeous blue and pink bloom—perhaps Toshiko misplaced it, I didn't bother to change it. There were no digimon spiders or rabid dogs or whatever other kind of digimon there was, so I just left it where it was.

"Any luck?" Yuuko called out.

"No," I said. "Do you think the boys have emailed us yet?"

"They could've…maybe. If Koushiro is more diligent than Taichi, there'd be a chance anyway. Or maybe Hikari made them answer. I don't know. We'll find out when we get back. Don't lose hope though. We'll hear from them."

"I just wondered," I said with a sigh.

"Did you hear that?"

"Shh!"

"But she said Koushiro."

"Shh! They'll hear you."

"And Hikari and Taichi!"

"They could be enemies."

"Maybe they know where Mimi is…"

"In the Digital World," I told the voice coldly. "With my son. Who are you?"

"I told you to be quiet Tanemon. Now they know we're here!"

"But she said Mimi was in the Digital World. She said with her _son_. That means she's one of their moms. Moms are nice, Yokomon. We'll be fine," the one I assumed to be _Tanemon_ said.

"B-but—" _Yokomon_ said.

"Come out," I said a little softer. "Come out where I can see you."

"Okay. There's no need to get all huffy about it," Yuuko said coming out of the back room. She looked between me and the pot of foliage. "You are not talking to me at all…are you?"

"No," I said. "Something called a Tanemon and a Yokomon are hiding inside the plants."

"Yokomon? As in Sora's Yokomon?" Yuuko asked.

"Sora! You know where Sora is?" cried a pink digimon as it clambered out of the leaves. The gorgeous bloom was attached to her head, making me feel like an idiot for not bothering to check it out when I'd first seen it. "Is she okay?"

"We don't know yet," I said. "Koushiro should be emailing me…but I haven't gotten it yet."

"Mimi was always complaining about how he never got off of that computer of his," a small light green digimon said as she followed Yokomon out. This had to be Tanemon. Her head was home to two light green leaves…again, a blow to my detective skills… "I hope they're alright."

"They will be," Yokomon said. "As soon as we get there."

"So you need to find them?" I asked.

"You take care of this will you?" Yuuko asked. "I think I remembered Toshiko saying something about an office…." She headed off in another direction entirely, searching for the herbs. I, on the other hand, was desperate to know something, anything that meant my baby was safe.

"Motimon will have found him," Tanemon told me, as though reading my mind. "He wasn't out as far as we were, he was closer to The Temple. Gennai would've brought them there first."

"And Gennai would have found them?" I asked, hoping this Gennai person was a nice, trustworthy person.

"Gennai knows just about everything about the Digital World," Yokomon announced. "He's been there since the very beginning."

"Maybe even longer," Tanemon said.

I wasn't sure about that, but they seemed to believe it.

"Found it!" Yuuko shouted from somewhere within the shop's office…wherever that was.

"Shh!" Yokomon said. "The bad guys might hear you."

"Couldn't you just…fight them?" I asked.

"Not until I find Sora," she explained. "I'm not at a high enough level to do anything."

"So if we help you get to Sora…"

"I'll be able to help fight and fix everything," she said.

"Then you'll just have to come with us," Yuuko told them. "But we're leaving now. We got what we came for, and we've got a schedule to keep." We didn't… "If you're coming, let's go."

"We'll come," Tanemon said quickly. "It'll be safer…er…for _you_…if we went with you."

"Right," Yuuko said dryly.

I smiled. If Koushiro didn't think my last email was worth a response, I now had something to tell him that would guarantee an answer. These two needed to find their partners, and Yuuko and I needed to find our children—and the other children as well, they all needed to be safe—it seemed like a fair trade to me.

"Let's go then," I said. "What are we waiting for?"

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Oh no! Puppetmon is gaining the upperhand, and Taichi and Terriermon have been separated from the others. Will they manage to pull off a win? Or will they cave under the pressure? Sora—reeling after a high-stakes battle—is still trying to find herself and most importantly, closer over her crest, and Satoe has to come to terms with her daughter's dreams, before something terrible happens and it's too late to apologize….


	37. Dance Puppet

**Y/N: **The Internet is back! My parents had to get a repairman in to fix it, so we were without it for five days. I'm so sorry about the late update. If I could get anywhere—other than work—to upload it, I would have, but I've been swamped. I did however put the break in internet access to good work. I've got half of my work for the next chapter done, and some extra stuff you'll get to see a bit later than that. :D hope you enjoy this chapter and consider leaving a review? Anyway, I'm Taichi this time around, and my brother is Sora and Satoe Tachikawa again. This is kind of fun. But also, I noticed that Taichi is used a _lot_ in this arc…. Oh well. Taichi's fun to write as.

**U/N:** This was fun to write i guess... I've been waiting for this Sora-becomes-awesome chapter for a while now and i think i'm going to be looking forward to every time i write Sora from now on. I also think that Satoe is my favourite character to write (other than the digidestined) and so this chapter was fun :P Tai's part isnt' done yet, **(so was, he just didn't know because the internet was down for those five days….)**_(No it wasn't you fool. i wrote this author's note like a few weeks ago. your chapter was not done yet because for some reason i'm the only one able to get ahead) _and so i can't say much about it, but yep :D Enjoy it and stuff, please leave a review aaaaaand... bye :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 38: Dance Puppet**

_**Sora:**_

We were walking _again_! It seemed to me that was all we ever did. Even though it had only been a couple days, it seemed like it was forever. My legs felt like they were wood—it felt like I was dragging wood along with my body, and worse—my feet were on fire! Not literally of course, but they certainly felt that way. I wanted to take my shoes and socks off and just sit at the edge of a river and relax with my feet soaking in the cool waters—that is, until I remembered that the waters were infested with darkness due to Dragomon or whoever that made the Dark Ocean fuse with the Digital world.

The worlds were together. All three of them—well I wasn't sure how many there were—but I did know that there was at least one more—the World of Dreams—or whatever the others had called it. I'd been near it once—never inside though. I found myself fiddling with the long silver key in my pocket... what was this key for? What door did it open? I had almost forgotten about it completely... I only wished I knew...

I looked at the surroundings of the three worlds and sighed, it was not pretty. The sky was still bright from the strange sun in the middle of the night, but everything seemed to be turning greyer—and worse, was that everything seemed to be dying. The tree's leaves were falling to the ground and shattering into a million pieces all around us as we walked down the strange road. The road was from Earth, and I knew it well, it was near the University that my father worked at—only it was different now with all of the grey trees growing at the sides of the street, tearing apart the houses that once lined the streets, and creating a ceiling of leaves above us, mostly covering the sky.

Tentomon was buzzing around me, like an annoying fly—the only difference was that I actually found the hum of his wings comforting. I mean, I had to admit, Biyomon's flying was much less irritable, but at the same time, Tentomon was my friend now I guess... He was nice, and I enjoyed his company, but I couldn't deny that Miyako talking excitedly with Hawkmon just next to me was making me a little jealous. Okay, a _lot_ jealous. I just missed her—and yet I had no clue where she was! Everyone else seemed to have found their digital partner, but me. And worse—or better, depending how you looked at it—Miyako had figured out a way to go into mega, which was more than I had done considering Biyomon was still MIA!

I half listened as Miyako listened to Hawkmon's story about how he was avoiding capture from one Miss Ladydevimon before he had caused her to lose his trail and that was when he had found us.

As Hawkmon and Miyako began to walk faster, away from Tentomon and I Tentomon buzzed around my head, coming to the place where Miyako was, and then he turned his head toward me and said in a quiet voice, "Why do _you_ think Miyako was able to have Valkyrimon to show his self whilst fighting Machinedramon?" We both instinctively looked over our shoulder to where Machinedramon had fallen to pieces and exploded into data. I had almost forced it out of my mind... it was just weighing me down really, I was on a journey of self discovery and out pops a giant three thousand ton metal dragon digimon—it was just in the way of my mind evolution. "Hello? Sora?"

"Oh—sorry!" I said quickly, "Well... I guess it was because she showed her crest, right? She knew truly what her crest meant?" I scratched my head and thought to myself, that made sense—that was how we had all gotten to mega so far.

"I suppose." Tentomon said, switching sides again, "But I was really more curious if you had any theories on why or how it happened? How did she show her crest? What did she do?"

"I... don't know." I admitted, thinking back to the battle.

"Well I think it may have been the way she was battling." Tentomon said. "She was not fighting for the wrong reasons—she was fighting to win, and fighting to save everyone else."

"Well that's true..." I said, noting that in my mind. She had done that—and that was a significant bout of Honour right there... I had always thought that Iori would be the one to help Miyako out with Honour—but apparently she didn't need the help at all.

"Also I believe that her most recent digivolution might have had something to do with her broken relationship with Ken." Tentomon continued, "Now, I will not pretend to understand relationships between you humanoids, but I can tell you this: Miyako showed honour and respect in herself, not returning to Ken Ichijouji. He has, for lack of a better phrase "broken her heart", and so, it shows great honour and strength—integrity if you will for her to not dwell on the man who has caused her so much pain."

"So she is showing that she honours herself...?" I asked, "By not going back to Ken? Because she still loves him... but she knows that returning would be the wrong thing to do... unless he could prove himself worthy? Prove that he's changed..."

"Exactly." Tentomon said, "You are learning to think outside the box, Sora. I like that about you."

"Th-thank you?" I tried. He buzzed happily through the air, faster, toward Miyako and Hawkmon. He was right though... Miyako was respecting herself. She was being mature, and smart about the entire situation. Why couldn't I be like her? Why was I looming so much on Yamato? Why did I care _so_ much that he had left me? I know I was in love with him... I know he left, knowing what it would mean to us—he chose to split apart from me... and so I knew I should be hurt—but why couldn't I be stronger? Why couldn't I let this experience help me...? Make me better than who I was?

I was taken out of my thoughts by a loud, ear piercing scream from Miyako, drawing my focus toward her. Tentomon and Hakwmon were both suddenly on either side of her, as she pointed toward the trees along the right side of the street. I ran to catch up to them, all of them standing still, staring at the trees.

"Are you sure?" Hawkmon was asking in a panic, as he took cautious steps toward the trees that Miyako was still pointing to.

"Yes I'm sure!" She squeaked, grabbing my wrist, and pulling me suddenly toward her.

"I do not see anything." Tentomon said, following Hawkmon's lead.

"Stop!" Miyako shot at them. "Let's just keep going."

"Don't you want us to check—" Hawkmon tried, but Miyako cut him off instantly.

"No." She said, "Let's just go... I think it's time we found the others again."

I looked to the ground, letting my head fall and found myself thinking. Miyako had found her digimon, discovered her crest inside of herself and even gotten herself into a perfect place after her break up... but I was still stuck trying to get over Yamato—I wasn't ready to go back. I needed more time... my mind clearing mission wasn't over... and I didn't even want to think about it at that moment. I was more curious as to what Miyako had spotted in the trees, but by the look of pure terror on her face I knew it wasn't good... but I also just... didn't want to know at all...

"Let's go then," Hawkmon said with a grin. "Shall I digivolve and take you all to where you need to go?"

Miyako nodded, "Yes."

"No." I said flatly. "No, I can't go yet. I just have to do one more thing."

"What's that?" Miyako asked, nervously looking back toward the trees.

"My dad's workplace is just at the end of this road." I explained, "I know it seems unlikely that he'd be there given everything that's been going on, but he's kind of obsessed with Digimon... he might be there—he just... I have to check. I just want to talk to him." I told Miyako. I was coming up with the idea on the spot, but it might help... I was in a pretty bad place at that moment, so anything could help really.

"Then we'll go back?" Miyako asked me, still staring at the trees.

"Yes. I promise I'll go back to the others with you after that." I said, trying to smile but giving up. She broke eye contact with the trees and then looked toward me and nodded, smiling.

"Let's go." She said, "It was selfish of me to not wait until you were ready Sora." She turned and began leading the way toward the University. "We'll wait until _you're_ ready to go. When we _both_ are."

"That's very honourable of you Miyako!" Hawkmon smiled, taking flight and flying next to her.

"See?" Tentomon said walking next to me before taking to the skies and flying around my head again, sounding off in his familiar buzz.

I listened to the sound of his wings as the four of us walked in silence toward the University at the end of the street, thinking about Yamato. I had been living at his house—I'd have to go back there and get my things, well that was just _asking_ to be awkward. Maybe I could get Takeru to get them for me—no, I knew that was a coward's way out of things. I'd have to do it myself. Maybe that would give me some time to talk to him about the whole break up... or whatever it was. Maybe we didn't actually break up—perhaps he was just taking time to think—maybe he didn't even go to the dark side—maybe he was just searching for something... someone—what if he had been taken by one of the remaining Dark Masters? And here I was trying to figure out how to get over him—

No Sora.

He's gone.

It was hard to admit to myself, but actually killing the last threads of hope made me want to cry, at the same time as making me feel... relieved almost. Without Yamato there in my mind, without that lingering feelings of hope and love... I knew I was ready to talk to my father... for some advice...

Which was good because we were stepping into the school's parking lot now, which was littered with strange craters as if a digimon war had happened right there. I knew I should have been worried about it, but I wasn't. No more than I already was anyway. Both of my parents could be dead—I was aware of this. They were both somewhere on this strange mutated world surrounded by crazed digimon... and I hadn't seen or spoken to either of them in so long... I couldn't even remember what the last things I had said to them were... but I knew they couldn't be good.

"Sora...?" Miyako said slowly, pointing toward the front door to the University. The door was scorched, melted and blasted open. My heart panged violently as I ran inside quickly. I saw a broken and melted pipe on the floor next to the door, but didn't stop to examine it, quickly running toward my father's classroom. As I worked my way through the tall, arched hallways, I heard Miyako's footsteps and Tentomon's humming following me, and I could only assume that Hawkmon was there with them. Soon I was sliding to a stop in front of his classroom, fiddling with the handle, pushing the door as hard as I could, but it wouldn't open. I began slamming my fists into the door as hard as I could become vaguely aware that Miyako and the others had caught up to me. I heard things being pushed around inside, I stepped back listening to the sounds until suddenly the door flung open.

"Sora...?" It was my dad. He was standing, panting in the doorway, sweat beading on his face, his clothes were out of place, his tie draping over his shoulders. His greying hair was messy and he looked shocked to see me, but suddenly he smiled and stepped toward me, wrapping his arms around me without a second thought.

"Dad!" I cried out, suddenly feeling tears in my eyes. I held them back because I had no time to get emotional. But just seeing him again—seeing that he was okay... I cleared my throat, "I need to talk with you."

"I'll just wait here..." Miyako smiled at me, waving politely to my dad before stepping into the classroom with Tentomon and Hawkmon, shooting me a smile and a thumbs up, mouthing the words 'Good luck'.

"Good bye Sora!" Tentomon buzzed to me, "Be back soon—Koushiro wants me to protect you—and any friend of his is a friend of mine!"

I smiled at him before turning to my father.

"What do you want to talk about?" Dad asked.

I wiggled free and smiled at him before setting off back down the hallway. He followed me. I didn't speak until he was in stride with me, trying to figure out what to say.

"What is going on with you and Mom?" I asked him. I had meant for it to come out less blunt than that.

He looked nervously toward me and then sighed, "We're taking... some time apart." He looked to me to see my reaction but I made sure not to let out any emotion. I didn't want him to see the vulnerable side of me for some reason. I guess it was because he didn't seem to care about me anymore—he never called to see if I was okay, he never said anything to me, or about me... why would I let him know me?

"How long...?" I asked him.

"I don't know..." He admitted, "Look—what's this about Sora? Don't you have more important things to be doing with your time? As far as I can gather the worlds are becoming one. You, as a Digidestined need to rescue the world—you should be out there saving it."

"I can't." I told him as we turned a corner. "I needed some time to myself."

"Why?" He asked.

"Well... Yamato and I broke up." I told him, realizing that I couldn't hide that if that was what I was here to get help with.

"Oh honey... I'm sorry." He said, hugging me again.

"Yes, well..." I said, pushing free again and setting off, once again, down the hallway. "As I was saying, I can't save the world if I can't figure out my crest of Love. Besides, I can't find Biyomon."

"Well Miyako has Hawkmon." He pointed out, "Biyomon will turn up eventually. Love never dies Sora—and you love her. The bond between the two of you is so strong that even living in separate worlds can't break you."

"Love never dies?" I asked him, "Oh really? Well remember Yamato—because I was in love with him Dad. And he turned evil. And before that—Taichi! I'm pretty sure there was love there too—he ignored his sister and ruined her life, and broke friendships over me." I saw that Dad was raising his eyebrows at me, so I ignored him, "I loved them so much that they turned evil and dumped me. Love seems to be dying all around."

"Love never truly dies Sora." He explained further.

"Then why did he leave?" I asked sharply.

"I can't explain that to you Sora." Dad said, leading me down another hallway.

"And what about you and Mom?" I asked him sharply. "What there? Why do you two not love each other anymore? I thought Love couldn't die! Or did you never really love each other? And if that was the case then why is my crest love!?" I could feel the emotions rising inside of me as I tried to hide them once more—why was I so emotional _now_? Couldn't it wait? "And I mean—"

Dad stopped me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Sora..." He said quickly, "I did love your mother—I _do_ love your mother. It's just very complicated. I can't explain it to you... But whatever is meant to happen, will happen. Not every story has a happy ending, but I do know that in the end, the story you choose—the one you end up following _will_ have a happy ending. Because you are the most caring, nurturing, kind and_ loving_ person I have ever met, and anyone would be lucky to have you, because you're perfect Sora."

I decided in that moment that hiding my emotions was stupid as I threw my arms around him and hugged him as tightly as I could, letting tears flow from my eyes—but they weren't tears of sadness anymore—I was... happy. "I love you Daddy..." I said as he wrapped his arms around me again.

"I love you too Sora," He smiled at me. "Now can you do me a favour?" He asked me as he released me and I took a step back.

I nodded, "Yeah..." I told him with a smile, wiping my eyes with my sleeve.

"Can you go kick some ass and be the hero I know you are?" He smiled down at me as I nodded with a grin on my face.

"Sure thing!" I smiled at him. "if we can figure out how to kill the _God_ of the Digital World..."

Dad looked shocked for a moment before smiling and saying, "Everything has a weakness Sora. You just have to figure out what it is."

I tried to thank him for the advice but I was cut off by a loud banging just down the hallway, the way we had come—the way toward the classroom. Standing in the arched entrance to the hallway was a flaming humanoid digimon that I recognized instantly as Meramon.

"I thought you'd killed him!" Dad gasped.

"I thought he'd killed you! And no, I didn't run into him." I told him, "And I told you! I don't know where Biyomon is!"

"Well he's been trying to get into the school for a while." Dad said, "We'd better run—I think he might be angry..." Dad turned to run, but I instinctively stepped toward him as Meramon. "Sora! What are you doing?" He hissed from behind me.

I ignored him and continued walking as Meramon began to step toward me slowly. He was staring directly at me with his shallow blue eyes as I worked my way toward him. "Meramon...?" I said as I was coming closer. "Do you... remember me?"

"Sora it could be any number of Meramon's." Dad informed me as if I had no idea as to how the Digital world worked.

I ignored him again and moved closer to Meramon. "It's me... Sora." I said, "What's wrong...? Why are you doing this?"

"Sora..." Dad warned.

"Meramon...?" I ignored him again. I was close enough to touch him now, and I could feel the intense heat radiating from the flicking flames that made up his structure as we both stopped walking. "Meramon...?"

"RAH!" He screamed out suddenly, the flames on his body growing as I felt my dad wrap his fingers around my arm and drag me away from the creature.

"No!" I insisted, ripping free of his grasp and stepping toward the growing digimon. "Meramon! Stop! Stop now!"

Meramon stopped screaming, and stared at me, but his flames did not die down.

"Meramon!" I yelled again. "MERAMON STOP!"

The flames died down suddenly as he tilted his head toward me, opening his mouth slowly, revealing the orange thread tying his lips together. "Help... me." He said slowly.

I found myself smiling and clapping as I jumped toward him. "Help with what?"

"Sora be careful!" Dad warned from behind me.

"What... is happening...?" He asked, "Why ... am I here?"

"I have no idea." I smiled at him brightly, I noticed his frustrated expression and then held up my hands in defence. "But I know someone who might!" I stepped aside and motioned toward my father who looked shocked, he always wanted a moment alone with a digimon, so I figured he wouldn't mind too much with Meramon tagging along. "He can help you. He knows what's going on."

"Help me..." Meramon said, stepping past me and toward my father.

"Dad..." I said as he nervously began walking with Meramon, looking over his shoulder toward me. "Thanks... I'll be back to see you when we're done with this. When we win." He smiled at my confidence and winked at me.

"Good luck Sora." He said before he turned to Meramon to explain what was going on. I wasn't really sure if my dad really did know what was going on. But I was positive that that Meramon was the one from the Yokomon's village—and the Yokomon's had told me that Meramon was a very friendly digimon while not under the influence of the Dark gears... but he was easily angered. And he was confused—in a new environment. Of course he'd be mad!

But I didn't have time to think about that. I threw Meramon to the back of my mind, just like Yamato. I had to get Miyako, Tentomon and Hawkmon, and we had to get back to the others. I was ready to face Kurayami and her band of evil—and I was ready to fight for the sake of all the worlds if it meant keeping my parents safe... including my mother... even if we weren't talking anymore.

I set off at a run toward Miyako.

_**Taichi:**_

I so did not have a plan. This wasn't how this battle was supposed to go. Puppetmon shouldn't have ever taken control of our digimon, no matter how short of a time. I was supposed to be with Agumon right now, and Willis with Terriermon, and we'd digivolve them to mega and kick some serious puppet tail.

Instead, I was running through the trees with a rabbit—who insisted he was a dog but I still couldn't see it—with Puppetmon chasing after us. On the plus side that actually left Willis, Koushiro and Agumon relatively safe for the time being. Too bad that didn't help Terriermon and me in the situation.

"This is not good," I said.

"That's an understatement," Terriermon said grumpily as we rushed through the trees. I could hear Puppetmon following behind us. He was letting out slow, agonizing breaths. Agonizing because he somehow managed to even make breathing into a whine… He was such a nuisance, really. It might've been a relief to actually let him kill me.

Of course I wasn't about to let him win. It would just make him whine out a victory song, and I couldn't let the world endure that.

"Come back here! Don't run away. I just want to play," Puppetmon said.

"Does he really think that'll make us stop?" I asked Terriermon incredulously.

"He doesn't seem smart," Terriermon reminded me. I rolled my eyes, and looked back over my shoulder. The wooden puppet digimon was making his way towards us, and fast.

"Weave through the trees," I suggested, picking Terriermon up—my legs were longer. We were moving faster now, but the trees were going to cost us precious ground if the weaving didn't help deter our chaser.

"Stop doing that!" Puppetmon shouted at us after I heard him crash into a tree in his haste to get to us. I almost snickered. I would have, had I not almost hit a tree myself when I looked to see if he'd recovered yet.

"It's working," Terriermon said happily.

"Don't jinx it," I warned him. I was running out of energy. I didn't like that feeling. I'd only been running two, three minutes tops. I could usually run for over an hour without feeling this drained. The lack of food, water and sufficient rest was the cause. But I ignored the ache in my chest and the stitches in my side. I had to keep Terriermon safe, until I could find the others again. I also had to stop trying to speak while running.

"He's gone?" Terriermon said confused. He'd been looking over my shoulder, watching Puppetmon like a good watch-dog—if he was in fact a dog and not the rabbit he appeared to be, I was still questioning that—and appeared to have lost sight of him. It didn't mean he was gone. It just meant we were sitting ducks because we'd lost our enemy.

I tried to quiet down my heavy breathing to see if I could hear him following us, or his whiny complaints at least, but I couldn't hear anything other than my own foot falls.

"We've got company," Terriermon said, his voice wavering. I glanced at him, after dodging another tree, and saw he was looking to the sky.

There was an Airdramon above us, and it looked pretty frightening. Of course that was mostly just because I immediately assumed it to be one of Puppetmon's goons—not that I'd seen any others before.

"Great," I groaned. "Okay, so an aerial search is going to damper our progress. We can't just run like we have been…"

"But that means that Puppetmon's going to catch up," Terriermon pointed out, glaring at the Airdramon.

"So what're you suggesting?" I asked him.

"I'm going to take down the Airdramon," he said confidently.

"Are you?" I asked skeptically. It's not that I doubted Terriermon's skills. It was just that he was a rookie, and Airdramon…well Airdramon was a very large, flying champion.

We were doomed.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked him.

"Yep," he said happily. "You're just going to have to help me out. Cheer me on…do what Willis usually does."

"I can't," I told him. "Willis has the power to help you digivolve. I can't do that. You know I can't."

"I meant be supportive," Terriermon said. "Gosh, you really are dumb like Willis says."

"That's Daisuke," I said on reflex. It wasn't the time to put down my 'replacement'. I liked to hope that there would be plenty of time for that later.

"Where are you?"

Great. Puppetmon was back. And it looked like he'd gotten lessons to find a way to be more annoying. His voice made me appreciate nails on a chalkboard—and I had a university professor that actually did that occasionally, just to see if we were paying attention…it's not fun.

"It's either Puppetmon or Airdramon, and I don't know about you," Terriermon said. "But I think I've got a better chance at taking out a champion than I do a mega. So I'm going to take that chance."

The dog-rabbit had a point.

"Okay," I said. "Let's do this thing."

"Bunny Blast!" Terriermon shouted, hopping out of my arms and sucking in a huge amount of air. He shot the superheated air towards the belly of the flying dragon. "A direct hit!" he cheered.

The dragon winced, and turned to look at us. His eyes however went straight passed us, as if he couldn't see us. Odd. I thought for sure he would've attacked instantly.

"Come out! Now," Puppetmon continued to whine. His voice was growing more distant. I shuddered, thinking he'd find the others instead.

"Bunny Blast!" Terriermon said again, shooting another blast of hot air at the aerial digimon. It, again, hit him in his soft underbelly. If I wasn't afraid of him trying to kill us, I'd have felt bad for the guy.

"Throw me in the air," Terriermon demanded.

"What?" I asked in surprise. He expected me to throw him twenty feet in the air so he could attack the thing head on? That was just not humanly possible, not to mention safe.

"Just throw me as high as you can," he insisted. "I'm going to hit him harder."

"Whatever," I said, forcing myself to put a little extra oomph as I threw him up. I got him up a grand total of six feet, and that was only because Terriermon was jumping at the same time.

"Terrier Tornado!" he yelled, twisting his body around and around. His ears were whipping out to the side, creating a green tornado that covered his body completely. The tornado lifted higher and higher into the air until he was level with Airdramon…and then suddenly, the tornado was gone. "Buddy Blast!"

This time, the ball of hot air landed right between Airdramon's eyes.

"Stop that!" Airdramon shouted in a distinctly feminine voice. I hadn't expected that in all honesty.

"No! You won't get us," Terriermon shouted, as he fell back down towards the earth. I was trying to stand underneath him, so I could catch him before he crashed into the ground. He hadn't thought this out very well I'd discovered.

"I'm not trying to get you," she shouted back. That was when I realized that Airdramon's mouth hadn't moved in the slightest.

"Who are you?" I shouted out, catching Terriermon in my arms, and setting him onto the ground—just in case he got any more crazy ideas about flying. It didn't matter what he was, neither dogs nor rabbits were supposed to do that.

"Who are you?" she countered.

"Look," I said. "We don't have time for this. Are you working for Fanglongmon or not?"

"I don't even know who that is for certain. Airdramon didn't teach me much about him," the voice said.

"Then I'm Taichi. Taichi Yagami," I said. "This is Willis' Terriermon."

"Willis? Where is he? Is he with Michael?" she asked.

"You see, that's not the right way to respond," I said with a sigh. "You're supposed to give me your name so I can see whether I want to trust you or not. Honestly, aren't you digimon taught manners?"

"I'm not sure if they are, seeing as I'm not a digimon," the girl said. "Airdramon, get closer to the ground. I think he's Michael's friend."

Michael's _friend_? I wasn't too sure about that, but I knew him.

The Airdramon nodded briefly before following her instructions.

"Oh, I remember you," she said. "You're hair isn't easy to forget. You might want to get it cut soon."

"My hair stays the way it is," I snapped, taking in her appearance. Her hair was longer than it was the last time I'd seen her, and she was wearing ridiculous clothing for a battle—a knee-length tartan skirt and a crisp, white blouse—but I did recognize her. "You're that girl aren't you? The one Michael wouldn't let Iori meet 'cause he thought Iori liked you or something. Yeah, you're…what's her name."

"Tatum Jefferson," she replied. "Yep, that's me."

"Michael's girlfriend?" I asked.

"Michael's hopefully soon to be girlfriend," she said sheepishly. "We're off at the moment."

"Ah," I said awkwardly.

"So, do you know where he is?" she asked.

"Not a clue," I said.

"Yeah we do," Terriermon said. "He's at the bad guy's base, right?"

"Shut up," I hissed. "Nope, he's not there."

"What was that for," he whispered at me.

"He probably won't want her to know he's a bad guy now," I told him.

"You're whispering skills need work," Tatum informed us. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly.

"Sorry," Terriermon and I said together.

"So is he actually evil, or is he just getting really into a role?" she asked.

"Don't know," I said. "Haven't seen him since he joined them. We're uh, headed there now."

"Where's Willis?" she asked, looking between me and Terriermon.

"Hopefully somewhere safe with Agumon and Koushiro," I said.

"Over that way," Terriermon said waving his hand in too vague of a direction to be helpful.

"Puppetmon's over that way too," she said. "We saw him. He didn't see me though, so he probably though Airdramon was one of this Fanglongmon guy's digimon. He looks pretty tough, doesn't he?"

The way she said it almost sounded like cooing. It was kind of disturbing.

"Willis is over there Taichi," Terriermon said. "We have to go save him. I can't let him get hurt. Lopmon would never let me hear the end of it."

"Can't have Lopmon gloating, now can we?" I joked. I looked into the trees, seeing if Puppetmon was anywhere near us. I couldn't see him, but if I strained myself, I could just hear him saying "Come and play with me. We'll have so much fun!"

No. We wouldn't. But I couldn't exactly yell that out to him, or he'd find us immediately.

"Hey, Tatum," I said suddenly.

"What?"

"Do you think you and Airdramon could give us a lift?" I asked.

"Where are you thinking?"

"To Koushiro, Willis and Agumon," I said hastily. "We have to get to them before Puppetmon does, and I think he's getting pretty close."

"Will you eventually meet up with Michael?" she asked. "Because that's all I'm looking for."

"Yeah," I said. "We're kind of headed to Fanglongmon's base right now."

"Excellent. I wasn't going to just leave you here, but it's nice to know I'm able to barter for things," she said happily. "You hear that Airdramon? We're finally getting a second assignment!"

She let Terriermon and I get on first—though I thought it was just because she was wearing a skirt and thought we'd peek—before crawling up onto her digimon.

"You got a first?" Terriermon asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah. We helped eradicate the digimon that were infesting the state of New York," she said proudly. "Which I only just now realized that Willis didn't bother helping with."

"Willis' mom is convinced that Lopmon and I are just stuffed toys," Terriermon said. "We couldn't do much to help without revealing that we weren't. She's very close minded."

"Oops," Tatum said. "I might've blown your cover."

"With the state of the worlds right now?" I said. "It was already blown."

"She'll try to keep Willis away from us," Terriermon said sadly.

"You're a rough and tough digimon," I told him. "Let her try."

He laughed, and seemed to forget, so I was thankful. It wasn't a good time to worry over things like that. There'd be time for that later…if there was a later. We had to make sure of that first.

"Take off buddy," Tatum told Airdramon.

"I have to ask," I said. "Why doesn't Airdramon speak?"

"He can't," she said. "But that's okay. He communicates fairly well with me. I can be your translator if you ever need one."

A digimon that couldn't talk?

"But how does he shout out his attack name?" Terriermon wanted to know.

"It might surprise you," she said wryly. "But you don't actually need to say it in order to use it. It just gives your opponent warning if you do."

"You totally say it for him," I said with a laugh.

"So?" she said defensively. Terriermon and I started laughing. Airdramon was shaking beneath us, so I assumed he was laughing at her too. It was quite funny in my books.

Not funny enough to forget that it got us noticed by Puppetmon though.

"There you are!" he said happily. "I knew I'd find you. I'm the best at hide and seek. You found more friends for me to play with? That's great! Now I'll get to have more fun."

I groaned.

"Oh no," Tatum said. "What do we do?"

"Get to the others fast, and hope that he doesn't catch us with one of his Puppet Pummel attacks," I said.

"There's more than one?" she asked horrified.

"That hammer of his is talented," I said dryly. "He can shoot us from where he is. Or he can jump and hammer us like a nail."

"Just great. Michael better appreciate the trouble I'm going through to find him. I already had to take down a Brimpmon," she said. I wondered idly what the hell a Brimpmon was, but shook it off. Agumon was more important at the moment.

"Agumon!" I yelled out. "We could really use you right now!"

"That's not going to help," Tatum pointed out.

"But they might hear us," Terriermon said. "Willis! I need to digivolve. Help me!"

"Really?" Tatum said raising her eyebrow at us. She looked down to Airdramon, and patted his head. "Ready for a Wing Cutter?"

"Not gonna yell it for us?" I asked with a grin.

"Wing Cutter!" she shouted out, before laughing with me. Airdramon's wings rose high above us, before shooting down swiftly. The speed seemed to create two blades, which crashed into Puppetmon.

"You _do_ want to play," he said happily. I hated that we were making him _happy_.

"Puppet Pummel!" he said—practically _sang_—swinging his hammer up into the air, and letting loose a barrage of gunpowder. He was swinging the hammer towards us, and I knew that if it hit, we were done for.

"Digivolve!"

"Willis?" I asked, but I didn't need an answer. Terriermon was glowing beside me.

"**Terriermon digivolve to…Gargomon!**"

"Let's see how _he_ likes it," Gargomon said. "Bunny Pummel!"

I was really questioning his dog-hood. Two attacks now that said bunny… It's not even like that sounded tough.

But it did look it, when he dived off of Airdramon, and delivered an uppercut to Puppetmon—who was headed towards us—before shooting a round off into his face.

"Hey! Oww," Puppetmon said. "You're not supposed to fight back."

"Taichi," Agumon shouted at me. I searched around, trying to see him. He was standing with Willis and Koushiro, near a small group of trees. Koushiro and Willis were watching the battle intently, but Agumon was just staring at me. Waiting for me to give the okay.

"Now!" I yelled back at him.

"**Agumon digivolve to…Greymon!**"

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "Now get him. He's made of wood. Let's see this puppet burn!"

"Nova Blast!" Greymon roared before spitting a ball of fire directly at Puppetmon.

"Not fair!" Puppetmon cried. He jumped over the flame though, and turned to Greymon with a glare. "You might have fire, but I've got more firepower."

"We'll just see about that!" I yelled. "Greymon, it's time for ultimate."

"I'm on it!" he called to me.

"In the meantime," Gargomon said. "Gargo Pellets!" He let loose another round of bullets from the vulcans on his arms. "Let's see _you_ dance."

It seemed like Gargomon really hadn't enjoyed being Puppetmon's puppet.

"**Greymon digivolve to….MetalGreymon!**"

"Mega Claw!" MetalGreymon announced, swinging his metal claw at the wooden puppet.

"Puppet Pummel!" Puppetmon declared, matching MetalGreymon's swing with his hammer. They hit one another. It became a battle of wills, but it was a battle MetalGreymon was going to lose. He just didn't have the same power that Puppetmon did. He did however have explosives in his chest.

"Giga Blaster!" he said with a malicious ferocity. The hatch on his chest opened, and the explosive hit Puppetmon straight on. The explosive kept moving though, and Puppetmon held on for dear life.

"Willis," I shouted. "Time for more, don't you think?"

"Right," he said with a nod. "Gargomon!"

"**Gargomon digivolve to… Rapidmon!**"

"Homing blast!" An explosive shot off of Rapidmon's back, trained directly on Puppetmon's location…on another bomb…

"Tatum," I said frantically. "Get us to the ground before it hits."

"Right," she said. She tried to keep her face calm, but I could see she was freaking out. "You heard him Airdramon. Get us out of the air."

Airdramon dropped us to the ground quickly, thankfully, because the two bombs met, and they made one hell of an explosion.

"Did it work?" Tatum asked me.

"I don't know," I said. "Let's hope."

"Luckily," Puppetmon's voice rang out. "Hope isn't your crest, as it clearly isn't on your side."

"Damn it," I said. I supposed that's what the X-virus did. Made him twice as strong as before. I should have remembered. He just looked so weak and tiny.

"Spinning Needle!" Tatum yelled. Airdramon shot numerous air spears out of his mane. It looked cool, but it was useless. What did she think she was doing? Airdramon was a single champion against a…double mega!

"Hurry up and digivolve," she said. "I won't be able to buy much time. Tornado!"

Airdramon stirred the air around him into a twister, sending it for Puppetmon.

"I don't have time for this," Puppetmon said. "This is getting boring. I don't like boring."

"Then let's give you more of a challenge. Willis! MetalGreymon!" I said loudly.

"Rapidmon!" Willis shouted, nodding at me.

"**MetalGreymon digivolve to…. WarGreymon!"**

"**Rapidmon digivolve to… MegaGargomon!"**

"Wing Cutter!" Tatum yelled as they transformed. Airdramon's blades were knocked aside easily with Puppetmon's hammer.

He meant it when he said he was done playing around. He'd been toying with us the entire time.

"Puppet Pummel!" he bellowed. The oddly annoying whine was gone from his voice. I was pleased to hear that, even if he was going to actively try to destroy us, it was nice to know the last thing I heard wouldn't be that whine.

He'd run towards WarGreymon with his hammer, intending to bash him into the ground. But I wasn't going to let him. Not if I could help it. I decided to channel my inner Tatum this time.

"Brave Shield!" I hollered. WarGreymon looked at me in surprise, for just a second, before using his shield to deflect the hammer when Puppetmon decided to throw it at him.

"Not fair!" Puppetmon said.

Damn it. The whine was back.

"Mega Barrage!" Willis chimed in.

"I knew I wasn't the only one," Tatum said happily. "Admit it, it's fun to feel more involved.

MegaGargomon let loose a volley of firearms. Puppetmon shrieked in anger as some of them hit him.

"I see what you mean," I told Tatum with a smile. "Terra Force!"

I could have sworn I saw WarGreymon roll his eyes before he lifted his clawed hands into the air in order to gather all of the energy within the atmosphere in order to fire a super-dense, high-temperature fireball at Puppetmon. I was kind of glad Yamato had chosen a few of the classes he did. I found it much easier to understand just what my digimon was doing now.

I kind of felt like I figured Koushiro must.

It was kind of cool.

Not as cool as hearing Puppetmon start crying in frustration when he barely managed to push away WarGreymon's attack though.

"You're not supposed to be strong! I have the X-Virus. Fanglongmon gave it to me. I'm two times as strong as you!" he whined.

"You're two times as strong as _one_ of us," Koushiro pointed out. "There're two of mega level digimon fighting you. We're stronger, because we have the crests. An artificial virus isn't going to change that."

"It should," Puppetmon pouted.

"Let's end this," Willis said.

"No!" Puppetmon said. "Not just yet. I've got a party trick for you."

"What?" Willis asked.

"Puppet Pummel!" he shouted, shooting a blast of gunpowder at the ground, creating a large cloud of smoke. "We can play again when you find me!"

When the smoke cleared…he was gone.

"Damn it!" I growled. "We almost had him."

"Hey, what's Tatum doing here?" Willis asked. I was surprised he was so quick at letting the escape go, but then, if he was dating my sister—or whatever it was they were doing—he had to be a hopeless optimist.

"I'm looking for Michael," Tatum said.

"I meant in Japan," he elaborated.

"And I'm still looking for Michael," she said. When he was still looking at her expectantly, she sighed. "Mr. Washington gave me a ride. He brought me and your mom over in his jet."

"You brought my _mother_ into this?" Willis asked in horror.

"She demanded that she come along," Tatum said. "She got me kicked out of the airport too. I left her and Mr. Washington at the community centre. A lot of people were gathering over there with food supplies and whatnot. I guess they figure the digimon are the sign of the apocalypse."

"But my _mother!_" Willis complained.

"Where do we go now?" I asked, interrupting them. "We've got to find Puppetmon, before he does anymore damage, but we've got to get to Fanglongmon's lair by the time the others do."

"Mimi's on her way there now, with Jou, Takeru and Hikari I think. They've got Gomamon, Gennai and Patamon to help, and DemiVeemon and _Otamamon_ to protect," Koushiro said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Got a phone call while we were running from Puppetmon," Willis said snickering. "Boy was Mimi _mad_ when she found out he'd forgotten to call her."

"We were running for our lives. I was a little busy," Koushiro said, rolling his eyes. "We've got to go now."

"But where would Puppetmon be headed?" I asked, looking around. He could have gone absolutely anywhere.

This was going to be much harder than I thought…

_**Satoe:**_

We were getting off of the airplane on some island in the Pacific, Keisuke was right behind me, hurrying along. Time was racing now. Our airplane had been forced to land before its destination airport in Japan due to the attacks around the country itself and that one other plane had already been taken down by the monsters. This was just not my lucky day! How was I supposed to get to Japan to see if the traitor was okay? I had a feeling she wasn't though... I had a feeling that she needed me.

"Satoe—this way!" Keisuke said sharply, grabbing my wrist and pulling quickly, dragging me through the tight knit crowd of people. I was shocked to say the least at the amount of people on the random island in the middle of nowhere. I supposed that since this was the closest the airplanes would get to Japan, and the battling going on over there was World-wide news. I bit my bottom lip as Keisuke dragged me through the bustling crowds. Elbows and shoulders slamming roughly into me from all directions, people trying to get around, tripping me, screaming loudly as I walked by. It wasn't a pleasant time for me at all.

Finally though Keisuke had successfully dragged me out of the crowd and toward a strange dock. I looked over my shoulder trying to make sense of where we were or where anything else was for that matter but I couldn't even tell where we were—I thought perhaps it was a marketplace, but it was far too crowded to be sure.

"Sir!" Keisuke called out, catching my attention. I snapped my head back to the docks we were headed toward and saw that there was a man sitting in rags at the end of the nearest dock with a long wooden fishing rod in his hands and next to him was a very classy man with a white sailor's hat. He was standing next to a large shining black and white boat. "Sir!" Keisuke called once more, coming to a stop in front of him.

"Can I help you sir?" The man asked in English, turning to Keisuke and tipping his hat in my direction.

"Would you let us use your boat?" Keisuke asked. "Please sir! It's very important. We need to get to Japan—our daughter is there and we're very worried!"

The man shook his head simply. "The waters are different nowadays." The man motioned to the sea around him. Keisuke and I peered around him and saw that there were large waves crashing around in the black waters. As we looked back to the man he turned to his boat, "But... for the right price..." I heard a splash in the water and I looked to the man who was fishing. He hadn't seemed to catch anything but there was a green, red, yellow and white fish jumping around, in and out of the dark waters. I didn't recognize the fish—then again I'd never studied fish—but even so, I could be pretty certain that not many types of fish had teeth as sharp as that one seemed to. I nervously stepped closer to Keisuke.

Keisuke turned to me quickly having left his wallet back in America. I hurriedly unclipped my purse and reached inside looking for money but came out empty handed. "Where is my money?" I asked quickly, "My wallet—it's gone!" I looked back to the crowd of people and practically growled. I had been pick pocketed.

"No money?" The man said, "No ride." He looked away from us and hurriedly clambered onto his boat and out of sight to us.

"Now what?" I asked Keisuke. "How are we supposed to get to Japan?"

"Why are you so worried about her?" Keisuke asked me, ignoring my question. "Do you not think she can handle herself?"

"I'm not worried about that thing." I told him.

"That _thing_ is our daughter. Mimi." Keisuke shot at me. I threw my hands over my ears instantly and began singing loudly. I could see him mouthing her name over and over again but refused to listen. Suddenly though a hand tapped his shoulder and I dropped my hands and stopped singing to look toward the man who had been fishing earlier, still dressed in rags.

"Did you say Mimi?" The man asked, "In Japan? Mimi Tachikawa?" I gritted my teeth as the man repeated her name over and over.

"Yes!" Keisuke grinned, "Yes that's her! Do you know of her?"

"No."

Keisuke's excitement visually fell and I had to admit that I was a little put out too. If the man seemed to know so much about the girl then how could he not actually know her? It was infuriating that he would waste so much of my time. Even if that girl was a traitor—a cheat—a liar and a backstabber... I knew I had to save her—to see if she was okay. She was my daughter after all... "Then why did you—?"

"I know someone who does know her." The man said with a grin. Suddenly my excitement was back up, but Keisuke didn't seem to feel the same.

"Can he get us to Japan?" Keisuke asked sharply as the man turned toward the waters, stepping toward the edge of the dock. "I mean knowing her is one thing, but getting us to her is another."

The man didn't answer. Instead he watched the sharp toothed colourful fish swim out deeper into the ocean.

"Sir?" I prodded the man with my finger, poking him in the face.

"Sir!" Keisuke said sharply. "Can this person get us to our daughter?"

"Person?" The man laughed, "Oh it's no person."

"What?" We both asked together. We were answered by a simple point as the man stuck his finger out and indicated for us to look out to the water at the fish. Suddenly the fish began to glow. I looked nervously to Keisuke who was watching in amazement.

"**Swimmon digivolve to... Whamon!**" I heard a loud booming voice sound as the waters all around us exploded causing a large wave of the water to raise. I found myself clinging to Keisuke as the wave crashedinto itself and rush toward the docks and shore. I relaxed a little as the water level rose slightly, the water washing onto the old wooden dock and soaking my feet and designer heels sending instant shivers all through my body.

"_MOM!" _ I heard a shriek. I looked to Keisuke who had clearly also heard it. _"DAD! HELP! DADDY! MOM!"_

"Mi...mi?" Keisuke asked, his face pale as a ghost. I grabbed his hand tighter and bit my lip once again.

"Oh—don't worry about that." The man said, "The water is just playing tricks on you. Try not to touch it. It does weird things on your mind and if you say in for too long... well... it affects digimon strongly—just imagine how it could affect a human."

I wanted to question this man, find out who he was, how he knew so much about digimon, those strange creatures my daughter was so involved with, but I didn't have the time. I had to get to Japan.

I looked out to where the fish had been and stared in awe at the large fish—no... whale. It was resting on the top of the water, bobbing up and down, waiting for us.

"Take my row boat to get to him." The man said smiling. Gesturing toward a small wooden boat tied to shore. "Don't row too fast, like I said, you don't want the waters touching you." The thought of the spine chilling waters and cries from my daughter were sent buzzing through my mind again. "And watch out for Dragomon." The man said with a grin.

"W-who?" I asked him.

"Dragomon." He repeated. "The digimon God of the oceans. He's not a nice fellow. Watch out for him. He's planning something big... it's going to go down soon—he and his minions are showing up more often in the waters. Don't worry though. Whamon will protect you unless Dragomon shows up. If that happens. You're scooped and Whamon will try to run... but I don't know if he'll be fast enough."

"This is comforting." Keisuke said sarcastically.

"Just be careful." The man said. "And when you find your daughter... you need to tell her to be careful too. Whamon said that Dragomon is after her and her friends. It could get bad really fast."

"Then we have to go." Keisuke said sharply. "Thank you sir for all of your help." He said, shaking his hand quickly and hurrying into the row boat next to us.

"Good luck." The man said to me. I nodded and hurried after my husband.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** With Puppetmon remaining a major threat, and Fanglongmon getting his plans ready, will the digidestined be able to prioritize their long to-do list? Willis has to fight more than one battle next time around, while Yamato gets a confrontation from a different Dark Master. Jun on the other hand has to pull herself together, and try to get past her fears.


	38. You're On Fire

**Y/N: **Okay. I'm just Jun this chapter. It was a nice little break for me in any case. I hope you enjoy, and review if you feel so inclined.

**U/N:** I think of all my characters, Willis is the most... boring to write. He's funny! (not when i write him) and he's clever, but he's so calm and... boring. I dunno, i love Willis, but being in his mind is super awful. But I think other than Hikari, Michael and Mimi's mother, Yamato is my favourite to write, so being him was fun... Sorry this chapter is so... odd. rushed? i dunno, it's so something-hey i just remembered my dream last night...

anyway, you should all review it and also enjoy it and also do something else that i could put here :D Anyway, yeah. bye.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 38: You're on Fire!**

_**Yamato:**_

"Would you just please be quiet?" Ken shot to Wormmon who had previously been humming to himself for comfort.

We were sitting in a very dark room, but a very large room. I could tell, by the way the sound moved—the acoustics—that the ceiling was very high, and that the walls were very far apart—it was the biggest room I'd ever been in. But I could see hardly anything. Gabumon had informed me that this was the first chamber, one of the ones we had come through on our way to see Fanglongmon. He had assumed that we were set up as some sort of defense—but if we were defense in the first room, then we were pawns—and Fanglongmon was using us. I decided that didn't matter. We were strong enough to defeat anything that tried to come through to defeat him... well I had hoped so anyway.

Ken and Wormmon were the furthest away from us, Ken was pacing back and forth and Wormmon was nervously sitting on the ground, flinching every time Ken came close to him. Iori was sitting near Armadillomon, both of them in complete silence, and Michael was sitting next to a smiling Betamon. Betamon seemed most at home here out of any of us... I wasn't sure why, but it was starting to freak me out. And of course Gabumon was next to me. I had tried to stay closest to Michael, he did after all seem to be in the same situation as me. He didn't look like he was being taken by Fanglongmon... it was his own choice to be here.

Daisuke and Kurayami had not come back yet from wherever it was that they had gone, but I hoped they would soon. Maybe Kurayami would know where the light switch was or something. At the same time, I didn't want her to return because she was extremely terrifying in a number of ways.

I heard a noise down the hallway to the left and looked quickly toward it. I stared for a few seconds but nothing came through, so I figured it was nothing, but when I looked back to Iori I saw that he hadn't given up hope. He was still staring down the hallway hoping for someone to come through, and I knew who that someone was. Everyone did. I felt bad for him really... the excitable Ando girl and his stalker both taken, and now him, coming here, joining the darkness...

I wanted to help him get them back now that we were so close to them, but I didn't want to go against Fanglongmon's orders. I wanted him to like me... and I wanted to become the leader. I knew it was unlikely that I was going to be, not with Daisuke, Kurayami and Ken all in line for the position. But I wanted to be the leader. And I wanted to show the others that I could do it. I wanted them all to know that just because I'd never had a chance to lead them that I could still do it—and that I wasn't just a background character in a crappy novel. I was Yamato. And I could do anything.

"Are you alright?" Gabumon asked me.

I looked down to him and smiled, nodding quickly, "Fine." I told him.

"If you say so." He said looking around. "This place is... kind of creepy. Don't you think?" he moved closer to me so he was sitting so close that he was touching me.

"Yeah," I told him with a smile, "Yeah I guess it is." I was trying to seem strong, I needed Gabumon, as well as the others, to know that I was fearless. Even though this place was actually incredibly freaky.

"Then why are we here?" He asked me, "Can you please just explain why you chose this team? I won't be mad at you, I promise."

"I'd like to know that as well." I looked up to see Michael. He had moved closer to me and away from Betamon. "You don't seem like the type that would join the dark side..."

"Neither do you." I pointed out. "So what are _you_ doing here?"

"You were asked first." Michael pointed out gesturing to Gabumon.

"And I'm telling you to go first." I smirked at him.

"Fine, okay." Michael said, raising his hands in defense. "I... well you see, when Kurayami told me that she needed me..." he trailed off for a moment, thinking, but I was pretty sure I knew where this was going, "I felt like I belonged... for once. You know? No one seems to care about me at all. No one ever... asks what I think, no one ever wants to know my mood—or my plans—and no one seems to respect me. And then when Kurayami said that... I knew this was my only chance to fit in." He took a breath and then continued, "Koushiro though, he talked to me a bit about those Ancient Runes I had studied... and every now and then Mimi says something to me, but other than that... I'm all alone here—and even Betamon won't talk to me. " We all turned to look at Betamon, who was sitting in the same position as before, perfectly still and smiling. "I think Fanglongmon has gotten to him like he did to Ken. He's really starting to scare me..." He looked to the ground slowly, I had to admit, the strange look on his digimon's face was a little creepy... just like everything else in this place. "I just wish Tatum were here... I miss her so much..."

"I thought you two weren't dating anymore?" I asked him.

"Not for long." He said slowly, "I just wish more people thought of me as part of the group—I want to belong!"

"Well," I told him with a grin, "You can add me to the list of people that have talked to you."

"I talked to you actually." Michael pointed out.

"Well I'll have to make a habit of talking to you more often then." I smiled at him.

Michael smiled at me before asking "So why are you here?"

"I don't know." I told him honestly, "I thought about the two choices and this one seemed right—my mind told me to come here... I thought that maybe I'd have a chance to be the hero—to save the day... to be the leader. But I guess I was wrong." It felt weird to open up—especially to Michael, but he wasn't as bad as everyone had been saying. "But I was wrong."

"And it's too late to turn back." Michael said, nodding in understanding. "We've talked to Fanglongmon now... I feel like there is this intense bond now—like I can't change sides even if I wanted to."

"I know how you feel." I said to him. It was a lie—I didn't understand that... he was tied to Fanglongmon? Why wasn't I? But the more I thought about it... the more it made sense... "We can't leave..." I said, coming to the realization.

"Exactly." Michael said, "I mean, maybe we can. Maybe it's just Fanglongmon's mind powers keeping us here, but can you imagine what he or his followers would do if we just walked off? I can't imagine he'd be very happy about it."

"You're right..." I said, glancing over my shoulder. I was starting to get more scared here than I had been before. "We still could though... if we went fast enough."

"You go." Michael said, "I'm stuck here." He looked back to Betamon and then to me again, "Betamon is under Fanglongmon's influence, like I said. And he won't leave here—and there is _no_ way I'm leaving without him. But... I don't even know if I want to. I came here to feel wanted—and I do. Kurayami wants me... Fanglongmon wants me... you're talking to me. I feel happy here—in a very strange, evil way."

I didn't understand that part, but I knew I wasn't going to, so I didn't try to connect with him there. "Well, I'll stay with you." I told him, "I still feel like this is the right path to choose... even though I know it isn't."

"Then why follow it?" Gabumon asked me.

"Because sometimes you have to make a mistake even if you know it's going to be one... just so you know what you've done wrong." I explained, "It's a stupid human thing... you wouldn't understand."

"Silly humans..." Gabumon said with a wink.

Another noise came from the back hallway, leading toward Fanglongmon's chambers and this time everyone turned as the large iron doors were pushed open and Daisuke and Kurayami came through looking very mischievous.

They walked until they were on the other side of the room, saying nothing, until they spun around to face us all.

"Fanglongmon has ordered you all to digivolve." Daisuke said with a smile, it wasn't a warm and friendly smile though; it was more of a 'do it or I might stab you' kind of smile. "It's almost time for the battle to commence."

Kurayami nodded quickly and motioned for us all to begin.

I nervously pulled out my digivice as Michael did the same, still sitting across from me. His hands were shaking and his digivice fell to the floor and clattered loudly. He nervously picked it back up and turned to Betamon who was now sitting next to him, still smiling.

"Ready?" He asked.

Betamon said nothing but began to glow alongside Michael's digivice, glowing and growing until he was a large sea serpent in the middle of the large room. Seadramon turned toward me as Wormmon and Armadillomon glowed in the background, with his evil eyes. I was reminded instantly of the moment where Gabumon had digivolved for the first time to save me.

"Digivolve..." I said nervously to Gabumon who glowed brightly and shifted into Garurumon.

"All the way." Kurayami said sharply. I noticed that Stingmon digivolved once more to Jewelbeemon, but Seadramon and Ankylomon stayed the same—neither of them had made it past champion level yet.

"Garurumon, go for it." I told him.

Soon Garurumon was Weregarurumon, and then finally he shifted once more, into Metalgarurumon.

"Good." Kurayami said as I stepped closer to Metalgarurumon, keeping my hand on him, to ensure I'd be safe. Seadramon was still eyeing me strangely before turning quickly to hear Kurayami's instructions. "As Daisuke has said, the battle will commence soon, and we need to all to be ready for it."

"Fanglongmon also would like us to point out that we will win." Daisuke says, "He knows this. He knows we will win... providing that we all stay faithful to him. If even one of us fails... the battle will be lost."

I looked nervously to Michael as Kurayami continued. "And the person who changes faith in the battle will perish. Fanglongmon will not allow anyone to stab him in the back." There was a long, and very awkward moment of silence after that as we all—or I did anyway—thought about our sudden binding contract to Fanglongmon. "Ken, I am leaving you in charge. Daisuke and I will return shortly. We have one last piece of business to attend to."

Ken nodded and smiled as the two of them turned to leave the room.

"Wait!" Iori called out suddenly, "I need to ask you a question."

Kurayami looked over her shoulder toward him, "And what's that?"

"Can I please see Natsuni? And Momoe—and Noriko?" Iori pleaded, "I just need to see if they're okay!"

"No." Kurayami said flatly before turning and leading Daisuke out of the room.

I looked to Iori and saw that his face had fallen, and he was literally pouting now—though I couldn't blame him.

"Yamato..." Metalgarurumon said quietly, "I think Fanglongmon is in my head."

"What?" I asked him slowly, "What do you mean?"

"He's getting in... he wants me to fight... I might not be yours to command soon... and if that happens... stay away from me."

"No." I told him, "I'll stay by your side no matter what."

"Yamato—I could hurt you." He tried.

"No." I told him, "You're my partner and I'm not leaving you." I smiled at him and he looked nervously toward the ground. I looked to Ankylomon and Jewelbeemon who both looked the same as Metalgarurumon, perhaps Fanglongmon didn't really want us Digi-destined... so long as he had the digimon at their highest level he could still defeat anything...

"So, why do we need someone to be in charge?" Michael asked.

"Because none of you are fully taken in by Lord Fanglongmon's power." Ken said sharply, stepping toward the front of the room where Kurayami and Daisuke had been. "But I am. I respect him and honour him. I will not be the one to turn against him. And you all need to be kept in line."

"Ken, don't be mean." Jewelbeemon said, stepping gracefully across the room to stand next to Ken.

"Please refrain from telling me how to act." Ken said politely to his partner.

Jewelbeemon looked away annoyed and stood by Ken, his arms crossed.

"As I was saying. I will be the leader, and I will keep you all in line because I am better." Ken smiled at us evilly, "And I am—"

"You're better?" A voice asked, voicing my opinion. I turned sharply to the left to see a familiar face in the entrance way. I wish I could have said I was happy to see him, but it was quite the opposite really. Piedmon was standing there, three swords on his back, his fourth one missing, with a blue teddy bear in his hands, and a green cat keychain around his belt... the cat seemed familiar to me... Nyaromon? No—it couldn't be... The mask on his face was stuck in a permanent smile—a creepy one at that. He stepped toward us slowly, passing between Michael and Iori. Michael looked nervously toward me, flinching as Piedmon slowly ran his finger along Michael's head before eerily doing a little skip and stepping up to stand next to Ken.

"You're not better than everyone. Perhaps better these pathetic excuses for digidestined... but not better than everyone." Piedmon said. "And especially not better than me."

"But—" Ken tried.

"And you." Piedmon pointed to Iori with a malicious grin on his face. "You want to see your friends? Well that's really unfortunate. You just missed them... I had to let them go."

Iori growled and clenched his fists.

"He's just toying with you." Ankylomon said sharply. "Stay calm."

"I'm just toying with you am I?" Piedmon snickered, "Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not. But... if anyone _were_ to harm them... it would be me." He reached down and pulled a metal ring cluttered with keys of different shapes and sizes. "These keys lead to the prisoner's cells..."

Iori pulled himself to his feet, and tried to run at Piedmon but Ankylomon put his tail in the way too quickly, stopping him from moving. Iori tried to push the tail aside, but Ankylomon was too strong for him.

"If you want to save them... you'll need this." Piedmon laughed wickedly, his mouth open wide. "But... you won't have time. Because they're next on my to-do list. Oh—did I say "to-do"? I meant "to-kill"!" He laughed once more, spinning the keys around his long white, boney finger before tossing them in the air.

As they came back down for him to catch them Ken reached forward quickly and suddenly, catching them and throwing them toward Iori who caught them in shock.

Piedmon stopped laughing instantly and turned to Ken, his face filled with anger. He shot his hand forward quickly and wrapped his long fingers around Ken's neck holding him tightly. "If you want your friend to live you will give me the key back."

Metalgarurumon and Ankylomon both shot across the room ready to attack Piedmon, but with a simple wave of his free hand he shot both of them back toward Iori and I. I jumped out of the way to avoid Metalgarurumon as he slid across the ground in pain. He was quick to jump back to his feet so I knew he was okay, so I turned back to Ken.

"Don't give it back!" Ken shot to Iori, "Save the others!"

"K-Ken...?" Iori gasped in awe as Ken's digivice lit up a bright magenta colour. Jewelbeemon was standing in shock as he began to glow and change shape.

"What's Ken's crest again?" Michael asked, clearly jealous, "How is he doing this?"

"Kindness." I told him quickly. "And... I don't know." I figured it was because he put his life on the line in order to help out a friend even while under Fanglongmon's influence... but I couldn't be sure.

"**Jewelbeemon digivolve to... Grankuwagamon!**" Ken's digimon was now a _giant_ black bug, standing taller than even HerculesKabuterimon had. His wings were long and transparent, tinted red. He had six long arms each marked with silver stripes and equipped with sharp silver claws. His eyes were red like the tufts of hair around his neck and he had two long black pincers that protruded from his face.

Piedmon dropped Ken suddenly and stepped back cautiously. "Fine... fine." He said with a smile. "You win this time." He said looking to the three digimon who were each glaring at him. Seadramon was not in the least bit ready to fight Piedmon. Piedmon backed away. "You're all quite strong... but I'm stronger." He smiled at us all, "I just have more important things to do."

"Ha!" I laughed, "Yeah right! You're just scared."

"No." Piedmon said honestly, "I really do have things to do."

"And what's that?" I asked him.

"Well I can't tell you that..." Piedmon smirked, "But I can say this... 'how is your mother doing...? Is she okay?'"

Metalgarurumon shot toward him quickly, barking loudly as Piedmon slipped through the door that Kurayami and Daisuke had come from. "Get him!" I yelled to Metalgarurumon.

But just as Metalgarurumon tried to jump through the door two shapes entered, blocking him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kurayami asked, being the first of the two figures, Daisuke standing right next to her. I looked to Iori who was fumbling with the keys Ken had gotten him, hiding them quickly.

"He's going to kill Piedmon." I shot at her.

"He most certainly is not." Kurayami said. "Did they behave?" Kurayami addressed this to Ken.

Ken nodded simply, looking to the ground as his new digimon partner stood behind him. I noticed Daisuke looking in awe at the beast, as Kurayami continued.

"Excellent." She smiled, "All of you get back and stay in position. It's time."

"Time...?" Michael asked nervously.

Kurayami smiled and clarified. "The battle is about to begin."

_**Willis:**_

Taichi was running around in front of the rest of us, searching desperately for Puppetmon, calling out his name with Agumon breathlessly following behind him. We had already searched the area around us in the woods and Taichi had decided that the next best thing would probably be to search out in the open, so we were now headed back to the streets of Odaiba, where I was pretty sure we would not find Puppetmon.

"He's gone a little crazy." Terriermon pointed out from the ground next to me, it was good to have him back—I had been pretty scared that Puppetmon had got to him when we were separated—which admittedly was true, but at least he was okay still... well as okay as we all could be. I was pretty sure Terriermon was as exhausted as I was, and I couldn't blame him—not having slept since I left America... it had been a long, long adventure. And Lopmon was the one who was always the most tired out of the three of us—she always fell asleep in the most unusual places... I only hoped that Hikari was keeping her safe... and that Lopmon was doing the same for Hikari.

"I'll second that." Koushiro said. He hadn't been talking much lately, but I could tell he was just flipping through his mind, trying to find what we should do next, as Koushiro usually would have it.

"Someone should do something about that." Tatum giggled. I had almost forgotten she was there as she and her Airdramon—now Monodromon followed closely behind us. "If I recall correctly there is a digimon that can help with that—"

"Oh there is—" Koushiro piped up, smiling.

"How about I just go talk to him?" I suggested.

"Perhaps that would be a more reasonable suggestion." Koushiro said quietly.

"Good luck," Tatum smiled at me.

I nodded nervously and scooped up Terriermon for moral support as I walked briskly across the greying grass toward Taichi, hearing a loud crunch as the dead plants beneath my feet snapped or crumbled. Taichi and Agumon had stopped running and were standing next to each other talking quietly, likely trying to figure out where to search next.

"Hey," I said as I came closer, but neither listened. They kept talking in hushed tones. "Taichi?" I tried, but again neither listened.

"PUPPET PUMMEL!" Terriermon shouted out from my arms causing both Taichi and Agumon to spin around to face us, prepared to fight. "Just kidding!" Terriermon laughed causing both Agumon and Taichi to sigh with relief.

"What's up?" Taichi asked rudely, "You two suddenly decide that you want to help out?" his arms were crossed and he was staring at me with his eyebrows raised.

"No." I said flatly, easily keeping calm. I wasn't a very loud or obnoxious person like Daisuke or Taichi, but the latter was clearly looking for a little argument, and I was not going to give in and let him have it. "I came here to talk some sense into you." I told him.

"Oh?" He asked loudly. "Is that so? Let's hear it then?"

I took a deep breath, almost scared of his reaction, but I shook my head and decided that fearing Taichi was just silly. "Running around aimlessly looking for Puppetmon isn't going to help. We aren't going to find him. He ran away because he was losing. If you keep running away then you'll get split up and he'll take us out one at a time."

"Well if you had Lopmon then you'd have two digimon, and he wouldn't be able to hurt you." Taichi smirked, "But I guess you can't keep track of both digimon." Agumon stepped forward, grabbing Taichi's arm, seeing that he'd gone too far, but Taichi shook him off.

"I let Lopmon stay with Hikari to keep her safe... or don't you care about her safety?" I asked him, feeling bad for how rude it must have sounded.

"How dare you even suggest that!" Taichi growled, "I—"

"You're being really mean Taichi." I said, cutting him off. "I'm going to forgive it because... well, you're tired and it's not fair to blame you for your mood—a lot has happened."

Taichi kept his mouth shut, I had a feeling he was upset that I was avoiding the conflict.

"Fine..." He said, "Then what do you suggest we do? If looking for Puppetmon isn't the answer?"

"I don't know," I said, glancing toward Tatum, Koushiro and Monodromon who had started coming toward us, "but we need an actual plan! We need to find Puppetmon, yes, but why don't we just go find the others, and make sure Puppetmon didn't go find them instead of us—or better yet... we could just ignore Puppetmon entirely!"

"Why would we ignore him?" Taichi snapped, "We need to destroy him!"

"Yes, we do." I told him, "But think about it, Dragomon is infecting the entire planet with the Dark Ocean and trying to kill your sister, Fanglongmon is turning your friends evil and taking over the worlds—is Puppetmon really that high on your priority list? If we find him, we find him, but we shouldn't go looking for trouble unless we really have to."

"I suppose you have a point..." Taichi nodded.

"Willis has lots of points!" Terriermon smiled, "He's very smart!"

"Not as smart as Koushiro though," Koushiro added, joining the conversation with Tatum right behind.

"So what did you guys talk about?" She asked, "Did you make a plan?"

"No." Terriermon and Agumon said together.

"They just argued." Agumon stated.

"Boring stuff really." Terriermon laughed.

"Well I have a suggestion..." Koushiro added. "I say we go see my mother."

"Not this again!" Taichi whined, throwing his hands up in the air. "I just want to go find the others—we need to stop the digimon from destroying the world."

I decided that I'd stay out of this argument as well, it was clearly something they needed to work out on their own.

"And we will!" Koushiro said calmly, "Just after I go see my Mom. She wants to know I'm okay, and I just have a feeling that I need to go there."

"Well we don't rely on gut instincts in this group." Taichi said, "Not yours anyway."

"We always relied on your gut instincts when you were the leader." Koushiro pointed out.

"I still _am_ the leader!" Taichi snapped, "And my gut is telling me to go find Fanglongmon!"

"Your gut or your head?" It was Agumon who had spoken. Everyone turned to face him as he looked nervously to his angered partner. "Taichi, this isn't you. Fanglongmon is talking to you isn't he? He wants you to come... and you're trying to fight it... you're frustrated... aren't you?"

"N-no..." Taichi lied feebly. "I... Well... yes." He admitted, "But I'm not going to join him!"

"Then why do you want to go to him so bad?" Agumon asked.

"Because I want to destroy him." Taichi said confidently. "I want him to know that no matter how much he pleads—no matter how hard he tries to get to me, I won't let him... I won't allow him in... and I will still have the strength to defeat him."

"Courage you mean." Terriermon said, "Strength is Michael's thing."

"And we will do that." Agumon said, as if Terriermon hadn't spoken. "Just after we check in on your mom."

"You're a great person Taichi." Koushiro said. "You have the strength to hold on just a little longer."

"Do I though?" Taichi shot, "I just want to go. Now."

"I could take you?" Tatum said in a questioning voice. "I could take Taichi and Agumon, that way we can go deal with this Fanglongmon guy and find Michael at the same time..."

"That would work!" Agumon smiled.

"No." Koushiro said, "Live together, die alone."

"What?" Terriermon asked, "We've lost another one to the loony bin!"

"If we split up, we will fail." Koushiro said, "We're staying together. We'll go see our mothers, and then we will go to Fanglongmon."

"And what if I say no?" Taichi asked, "Why should I have to listen to you."

"Because I'm wearing the goggles." Koushiro said flatly. I could tell he was nervous, but he was sticking up for what he thought was right, and it was pretty awesome. "I'm the leader right now, and what I say goes. We're all going to my house whether you like it or not."

No one spoke as Koushiro pushed between Taichi and me—pulling the goggles up from around his neck, and placing them firmly on his forehead—and set off at a brisk pace toward his home.

"At least he's using them right now." Taichi grinned, setting off after him with Agumon. Tatum, Monodromon, Terriermon and I hurried to catch up with Taichi as Koushiro led the way.

We all walked in silence until we found the road, which I found odd, Terriermon wasn't usually silent, and even then it was a few blocks before Taichi finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry Willis." He said, "I'm... out of it right now. I—"

"It's fine." I smiled at him.

"No." He said, "It isn't. I've been complaining about wanting to be the leader for so long now that I've actually forgotten what it means to be one. I don't deserve the goggles... if Fanglongmon has gotten this far into my mind—what makes me think that I have any right to lead this group. Koushiro was so straight forward with Fanglongmon... he really is a good leader."

"So are you." Tatum smiled, stepping up.

"I barely know you..." He said.

"I know you." She said. "The legend of the Chosen Ones has spread around the World. Everyone knows your story. The crest of courage chose you Taichi. You are the Leader. You're the chosen leader."

"But I failed—" He tried.

"Remember fighting Puppetmon?" She asked, "I don't know what those goggles have to do with being the leader, but Koushiro was wearing them then too, but you still took charge, you almost beat Puppetmon single handed."

"With me." Agumon smiled, nodding in agreement.

"What am I? Chopped dog-liver?" Terriermon asked, throwing his hands up in surrender.

"You're a great leader Taichi." Tatum smiled. "And once you remember that, you'll be even better."

Taichi didn't say anything for a moment, but then he smiled, "Thanks Tatum... but I still shouldn't have acted the way I did..."

"Well from what I caught of it..." Tatum said, tapping her chin, thinking, "Yeah, you were kind of a douche."

Terriermon burst into laughter as Taichi smirked and looked to me, "So sorry..."

"I'm over it." I said to him.

"Well good..." Taichi smiled, "I can't have you being my enemy if you're going to marry my sister."

"Marriage?" I asked slowly.

"Well yeah... if you're not planning on getting married, then what's the point of dating her?" Taichi asked. He had a point though... Was I ready to get married? No... but could I see myself marrying Hikari in the future? Most definitely. "You'll have some stiff competition though." Taichi laughed.

"Oh?" I asked him, "Who's that? Daisuke?"

Taichi shook his head. "Obviously Takeru. Do you not notice the way he looks at her?"

It couldn't make sense. He'd mentioned it before as well... but they were just best friends... weren't they? Then again... he did seem awfully jealous of me when Hikari and I were spending so much time together... so maybe he did... perhaps Takeru really was in love with Hikari...

"Anyway, we're almost to Koushiro's house, so we should catch up." Taichi smiled. "Thanks guys, all of you." He began running, practically dragging Agumon along with him as Tatum and I rolled our eyes and watched him run.

"So... is Michael okay?" Tatum asked me awkwardly.

"I think so." I told her, "Do you miss him?"

"So much..." She said, "This whole on-and-off-again thing isn't working for me... drama is too much—but right now I don't care if we're dating or not—I love him. And I need to make sure he's okay."

"Well... I'm sure he's fine." I told her. "We'll find him... I promise."

"Thank you Willis..." She smiled at me before running after Taichi leaving me no choice but to follow.

Soon we were all walking up the front steps to Koushiro's home as he pushed open the front door. The other houses on the street seemed to be boarded up and broken down, digimon had clearly been affecting this town... but where were they? And why hadn't they attacked this building?

Koushiro left the door open for us all to step in after him. I didn't bother taking my shoes off because I figured, since we were heroes saving the world, keeping mud off of Koushiro's kitchen floor wasn't really the highest on my priority list at the moment.

"Mom?" He called out. "Mom!"

"Oh hello!" Came a familiar female voice. I'd only met his mother once when I had come up a few years back to research with Koushiro over the summer, so I couldn't be sure, but her voice sounded different—strained perhaps. She didn't come from the kitchen where her voice had come from, so Koushiro led us toward her.

"Mom?" He asked, "How did you email me?"

As I stepped into the kitchen my eyes widened. The walls were splattered with baking batter and the two women in the room were stirring like crazy, their eyes wild and almost panicked as they baked for their lives it seemed. It was almost funny to see. But other than the batter on the walls the yellow painted kitchen was nicely in place just as it had been the last time I had been here, only this time instead of sunlight pouring in from the glass door that led to the porch next to the table a shadow from the Dark Ocean's sun was casting itself across the kitchen floor.

"Hey mom," Taichi said awkwardly. His mother smiled at him but kept baking.

Mrs Izumi turned sharply toward the sink and began doing the dishes slowly. "I just used the computer."

"Yeah," Koushiro said, "_my_ computer."

"Yes, well... I'm sorry about that..." She said slowly, "I didn't mean to upset you."

"Well... I suppose it is alright then." Koushiro nodded. He sat down on a stool by the counter and grabbed an apple from a basket sitting there. He took a bite out of it and then looked up to his mom again. "So where is dad?"

"Out." His mother replied simply.

"Out where?" Koushiro asked.

"I don't know!" Mrs Izumi slammed her hands into the kitchen sink roughly and loudly. I looked to Taichi and Tatum who were both as confused as I was. She must have just been panicked. There was a war going on and not knowing if your loved ones were safe or not... I could relate... with Lopmon, Hikari... my mother. I noticed Monodromon poke Terriermon and point down the hall.

"What?" Terriermon asked. Monodromon poked him again. "WHAT?"

Tatum placed her hand on Monodromon's shoulder. "Be nice." She warned him.

"So what are you all doing here?" Mrs Yagami asked as she rifled through the fridge. Her voice sounded very strained also. They must have just been worried mothers—it made sense to me... I wasn't even a mother and I was worried about everyone I knew...

"Didn't you guys email us and ask if we were okay?" Taichi asked.

"Oh—yes, that's right." Mrs Yagami chuckled, "How silly of me."

"WHAT?" Terriermon growled to Monodromon who pointed down the hallway again.

"Oh that?" Mrs Yagami asked, "That's just some spider digimon who tried to attack us. We didn't want to kill him so we tied him up and threw him in the bathroom." Monodromon seemed satisfied with that answer.

Koushiro raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

"Well done." Taichi laughed, "Didn't think you had it in you mom."

"You'd be surprised." She said before turning and smiling at him, pulling an egg out of the fridge.

"What are you baking?" Taichi asked, looking hopeful.

"I don't know." Mrs Yagami said, looking down into the bowl, her hair falling down over her face.

Agumon moved across the kitchen and sat next to Terriermon and Monodromon. The way everyone was moving and talking... things seemed pretty normal.

"I... have to use the washroom." I stated slowly.

"Oh you can't." Mrs Yagami said, "It's dangerous."

"I think I can handle it." I said, "C'mon Terriermon." I said, allowing him to jump up on my shoulder. I set off down the hallway. I looked in the first room, but it led to a bedroom. The second door led to another bedroom. So I opened the last door down the hallway and suddenly felt a hand on my back as I was shoved into the bathroom roughly, the door being slammed shut behind me.

I tripped into the room and fell face first into the shower, tearing down the fish covered shower curtains in the process.

"Willis are you okay?" Terriermon asked sharply. "I'm... fine." I said sitting up and rubbing my face. I noted that my nose was bleeding and groaned. Of course this would happen to me.

"Do you hear that?" Terriermon asked.

"Hear what?" I asked as Terriermon jumped off of my shoulder and landed by the sink. He pulled the cupboard door open sharply and gasped as a digimon with multiple legs fell out. At first I thought it was the spider digimon they had spoken of but I suddenly recognized it as Yokomon.

"TERRIERMON!" Yokomon shouted out with glee. I laughed, they had captured Sora's digimon thinking it was evil... "We were sent to the bathroom to get hairspray!"

"Okay?" Terriermon said nervously as another digimon followed the pink flower out of the cupboard. I knew this one was Tanemon, she was holding a can of hairspray.

"Yeah! Mrs Yagami was pretty sure it was used for her bomb recipe!" Tanemon chimed in, I was pretty confused. "But then they shoved us in a closet! I don't know why!"

"They're bullies!" Yokomon growled. "And they need to be destroyed!"

"They were probably just confused. They didn't know who you are." I told them.

"Oh no," Tanemon said, "They knew."

Suddenly I knew what was going on... I scooped Tanemon and Yokomon into my arms and ran off toward the kitchen... the reason their parents had shoved them in a closet, the reason I was shoved into the bathroom, the reason we couldn't find what we were looking for—the reason for the mess and the panicked eyes. I slid to a stop in the kitchen.

"Guys!" I shouted, "It's—"

"Puppetmon." Koushiro finished for me nodding.

"NOOOOO!" A whiney voice echoed through the house. "You weren't supposed to figure it out!"

Suddenly Mrs Yagami and Mrs Izumi fell to the ground as Taichi and Koushiro ran to their rescue. Agumon, Terriermon and Monodromon stood, ready for battle as Tatum and I moved closer together, Tanemon and Yokomon jumped out of my arms leaving me with just a can of hairspray.

Suddenly my free hand was controlling itself, reaching into my pocket and grabbing my digivice and throwing it into the air. Soon Tatum and the others all did the same thing and then from the ceiling, Puppetmon fell into the room, landing flawlessly, all of out digivices in his hand.

"Now this is what I call a fair fight." Puppetmon grinned, pocketing all four digivices.

I was suddenly panicking. Without digivices how were we supposed to defeat him? Three rookie digimon would not be able to defeat Puppetmon... I looked around for something to help us, but there was nothing except a few pots and pans which looked as if they had already been used to attack something big...

As I was looking I hadn't been paying attention to Puppetmon who had come right up next to me. I looked down to him suddenly as he punched me in the chest. Everything seemed to be happening at once at that moment. I could feel my heart fluttering, as I gasped for breath, and as I flew through the air toward the glass door next to the table, smashing into it and flying outside, landing roughly on the porch. I was gasping for breath still, my ribs felt like they might just have been broken—it was literally the most pain I'd ever experienced, and to top it off, shattering that door had caused many large gashes in my skin, and so I was bleeding all over—but I barely noticed them; I was too focused on my chest.

I pulled myself to my knees and clutched my chest, dropping the can of hairspray in the process. I was practically in a ball on the wooden porch in the back yard, biting my lip and trying not to cry from the pain. One thing I remembered my dad telling me was this... _"it's not pain unless you let it get to you."_

I figured he meant it for bullying or something, but I was applying it to this moment. I was not going to let myself get hurt. Puppetmon could not defeat us... and he could not defeat me.

"Willis!" Terriermon slid to a stop in front of me as I looked up to see him. "Are you okay?" He looked panicked.

I nodded, still biting my lip as I pulled myself to my feet. "I'm fine." I said through gritted teeth.

"Oh are you?" Puppetmon laughed, stepping through the broken door. "We'll have to fix that, now won't we?" He raised his large hammer as I felt my eyes widen with shock. "PUPPET PUMME—"

"Pepper breath!" Agumon roared from somewhere in the kitchen behind the puppet. Puppetmon jumped in surprise and ran out of the way as the ball of fire shot past Terriermon and I.

"Beat Knuckles!" Tatum chimed in as Monodromon leapt from the doorway and punched Puppetmon as hard as he could in the stomach. Puppetmon clearly felt something as he heaved over in pain slightly before brushing the digimon aside.

"Terrier tornado!" Terriermon joined the fight, sending a green whirlwind toward the enemy. Puppetmon stepped aside easily as Taichi and Tatum shot from the doorway.

"Where is Koushiro?" I asked them. Both of them looked scared out of their minds, and also relieved to see that I was okay. Tatum was holding Tanemon, but Yokomon seemed to stay inside with Koushiro.

"He's making sure our parents are still alive..." Taichi said solemnly. Apparently the results didn't look promising.

"She'll be fine." Tatum comforted Taichi as we all turned back to Puppetmon who apparently had found the time to have both Monodromon and Terriermon in his grasps.

"Monodromon!" Tatum called out, "Cracking Bite!"

Monodromon wound up and bit Puppetmon's arm as hard as he could. Puppetmon released both digimon, without showing any signs of pain. He looked at the bite marks though and suddenly his arm seemed to fade out of existence and then back in.

"What—?" Taichi asked.

"It causes them to malfunction where they are bitten." Tatum filled in quickly.

She was a smart girl. But not nearly as smart as Koushiro—he was our planner. If he was inside checking their parents... then someone had to come up with a plan... Tatum looked too busy keeping her digimon safe... so it was up to me. What was my plan?

"Pepper breath!" Agumon shouted out, drawing my attention. The flames shot right by Puppetmon who was clearly just toying with us. If he wanted to kill us, he could have done so already. I watched as he practically danced around the three rookies attacks as they, along with Tanemon tried desperately to do some damage. Tatum ran back into the house as Puppetmon continued his dance recital and came back out with one of the dented frying pans I had seen. She ran toward Puppetmon, the frying pan held high in the air, Tanemon running after her as they both let out a battle cry.

"Tatum no!" Taichi cried out, "It's too dangerous!"

She didn't listen. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't force myself to do so. Tatum his Puppetmon over the head with her frying pan as he turned toward her.

"OWWWWWW!" He whined loudly, "Not fair! You're using weapons!"

"And you're not?" She asked, not backing down. I had to admit that girl had spunk. But Michael would kill me if I let her get hurt. I ran toward her and Puppetmon as Puppetmon raised his hammer and swung it toward her. I pushed her out of the way, but she wasn't going to have that. She stood her ground and pushed me to the ground as the hammer came around and hit her in the back.

I watched in terror as she let a long, harsh scream escape her lips. She fell through the air and landed roughly on Koushiro's parents porch table, breaking it.

"Tatum!" Taichi and I screamed, running toward her. I felt a hand wrap itself roughly around my wrist and pull. I spun around painfully until I was face to face with Puppetmon.

"You're next Mr Hero." Puppetmon said with a sly grin as his eyes glowed red. "I'm done with this game. My Master will be waiting for me... besides, the bearer of light isn't here... she's who I'm supposed to kill.

I couldn't explain why I did what I did next, but I found myself using my knee to hit Puppetmon in the stomach and then punching him in the face. He wanted to kill Hikari, and there was no way he was getting the power to do that. I glanced to his pocket where all of our digivices were, but if I wanted to keep my hand, there was no way I could get them. I wound up to punch Puppetmon again, but he caught my fist and twisted my arm sharply. "No." He said menacingly before letting go and letting me fall to the deck.

I looked quickly over my shoulder ignoring the pain all over my body as Puppetmon jumped back, off of the porch and onto the lawn. "This is getting old. So prepare to die now."

"Not a chance buster!" Terriermon said, jumping from the porch, "I'm not going down without a fight! Bunny Blaster!" he shot his attack toward Puppetmon who used his hammer as a shield. "Terrier tornado!" He cried out as Monodromon ran up toward him to help out. I looked over my shoulder at Taichi and Agumon as they helped Tatum to her feet.

She was okay...

Suddenly relief was coursing through my body—even though it shouldn't have. I was pretty sure Puppetmon had sprained my wrist, broken my ribs and even cut me open in several places, and he was still right in front of me, going to kill me... and then Hikari.

This could not happen.

As I looked back to the battle I saw that Monodromon was on the ground, not moving and Terriermon was flying through the air toward Puppetmon who was shooting at Puppetmon with his multi-purpose hammer.

"Terriermon!" I cried out, clenching my teeth and fists as I watched Terriermon fall to the ground, still, just like Monodromon.

"Taichi." I said flatly without looking back to him.

"Oh crap." He said, clearly he hadn't been watching the fight. "Agumon... you're up."

"Right!" Agumon said confidentally. How could he and Taichi be so confident always? They never seemed to falter... they were clearly the ultimate leader here. But no Agumon, even if it was Taichi's, could defeat an X-Virus Puppetmon.

Even though Puppetmon was made of wood, and Agumon was a fire dinosaur.

Only... levels wouldn't matter as much now, would they? Earth was now mixed in with the digital world... and if we were still slightly digital, like Gennai had said, then Agumon and Puppetmon must've gained some Earth like qualities... and wood would never stand a chance against fire.

"Agumon!" I shouted. "Use as much fire as you can! Just hit him!"

"Right!" Agumon agreed, running past me and toward the angry Puppetmon. "Pepper Breath!"

"Telling my digimon what to do?" Taichi questioned me as he stepped up toward me, Tatum was attached to him, trying to stay on her feet.

"Trust me." I said firmly. "MORE FIRE!" I screamed to Agumon.

"Spitfire!" Agumon roared, "Pepper breath! Baby flame!" he was shooting fire balls of different sizes from his mouth, but Puppetmon was dodging them all. But the look on his face made me think that we had the right idea... he had been complaining about fire the whole time though—we just needed to distract him...

I looked behind me at the can of hairspray and quickly grabbed it. "Hey Puppetmon!" I screamed, "Catch!" I threw the distraction toward him and he looked quickly toward it, not sure what it was. He reached up and caught it as Agumon shot another "Pepper Breath"

"Dude!" Taichi warned, "Hairspray? Fire? Explosion?"

"Oh no..." I said suddenly, diving toward the deck as Agumon's attack hit Puppetmon, causing a loud explosion in the Izumi's back yard. I didn't look up for a while. I didn't want to move. I was pretty sure I'd be content with dying right there... especially if Puppetmon was still alive.

"Willis..." Taichi said slowly. "Willis, are you okay?" I looked up at him, hopeful as he pulled me to my feet.

"Did it work?" I asked slowly.

"See for yourself..." Taichi said shakily, pointing out to where the battle was taking place. First I noticed that the fence had fallen—no, not fallen, the fence was just gone, and the grass in their lawn, as well as their neighbours lawn was scorched. Then I noticed Terriermon, Agumon and Monodromon, all laying in the grass. I began to panic—how were they supposed to defeat Puppetmon like that? But then I saw that there was a pile of digivices in the scorched grass...

Puppetmon... was dead...?

_**Jun:**_

"What do you think of all of this?" Shuu asked me, after awhile. Professor Takenouchi had left a bit ago, and so we were just sitting in his office…with a giant horse-man digimon. Centaurumon wasn't terrifying, like I originally thought he was. But he was still weird, and you know…huge. I didn't know if I could trust him just yet, but Shuu was a good judge of character, and he trusted him, so I thought I'd better try to do the same.

"I just want it to be over," I said honestly. "I want Otamamon back. I want my little brother back. I never hug him, Shuu, but I really want him here right now, so I could thank him for all he's done in the past, and what he's doing now. I just… I miss him. As strange as that is, since I haven't missed him since he moved in with the Yagami's to take care of Hikari. I want him back."

"I'd like to talk to Jou about all that he's gone through as well. I don't think it's fair that I've let him go through all of this alone, you know? I knew what he was out there doing, but hearing it in theory is way worse than seeing it. It's more real now. More dangerous."

"They will be fine," Centaurumon said. I looked up at him, unsure. "They have their digivices, but more importantly, they have their crests and each other. They are a team. A team that always comes out victorious, and will look out for each other and a team that takes care of one another. They have come a long way from the time I first met them. They have grown so much. They _will_ be fine."

"I don't know if I can believe that until I see it," I sighed.

The door to the professor's office opened, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I screamed.

"Jun, Jun sweetheart, it's just Haruhiko," Shuu said, rubbing my arm. I blushed and looked to the ground sheepishly.

"Sorry sir, thought you might be that flame man," I said.

"As it so happens," Haruhiko said. "I have him with me."

"What?" Shuu and I said in astonishment. Centaurumon looked at us and then at Haruhiko confused.

"Sora was just here. She's fine, she thinks the others are alright, she's not sure though, as she was alone when she came," Haruhiko said. "Sorry I don't have any more information about your brothers."

"It's fine," Shuu said, though you could see it was strained. I couldn't even bring myself to lie. It wasn't fine. There was so much I needed to tell my baby brother, stuff I'd never thought of before, that I was maybe running out of time for.

"How does that explain Meramon's presence," Centaurumon asked gently, seeing that neither of us was prepared to ask.

"She recognized him immediately. I tried to keep her away, but she was insistent that she knew this particular Meramon. She was chastising him, and she told me to take care of him," Haruhiko said shrugging his shoulders.

"I apologize," Meramon said in a raspy sort of voice. One that fit him perfectly. It made me think of someone who'd suffered through a fire and come out after breathing in too much smoke…and well…Meramon was covered in fire…

"Why did you do it? Chase us I mean," Shuu asked. I looked at him nervously. He was actually going to try and reason with this monster? He was terrifying. And he almost killed us, planned on it in fact.

"I did not expect to be in this world," Meramon said trying not to touch anything except the concrete floor. Everything else was wooden except the doorframe. "I was protecting the Yokomon of Yokomon village. The Dark Ocean's Shadows had come to get them. Along with them was LadyDevimon. They were searching for a particular Yokomon. The Yokomon was young Sora's digimon partner."

"What do they want with Yokomon?" Haruhiko asked angrily.

"Alas," Centaurumon said. "The only one that can answer that is Fanglongmon himself."

"He does keep his plans secret," Meramon nodded.

"And what happened next?" Shuu asked.

"I was here," Meramon said. I was a little bit surprised, I'll admit. We at least got some warning. Digimon faded in and out before they were infesting our town. But I still didn't trust him. He tried to _kill_ us after all. "There were big metal monsters. They hit smaller digimon without reason. I had to protect them too."

"Those are called automobiles," Haruhiko said quickly as soon as he grasped what Meramon was saying. "Some are called cars. Humans use them to get around quickly."

"I do not know what has happened to my Yokomon," Meramon said sadly. "And in my quest to not fail the other digimon I have endangered the digidestined's humans."

"It's fine," Shuu said. "You didn't do any harm—to us anyway. I'm Shuu Kido, Meramon. It's nice to meet you."

Meramon and I looked at him incredulously. Did he honestly just forgive him and start over?

"But—" the two of us said at once.

"No harm, no foul," Shuu said with a bright smile. I almost forgot what I'd been thinking. He really did have a beautiful smile, and I hadn't seen it enough since this whole thing started. "You were trying to do something good. I can't fault you for that. I trust you to not attack me in the future."

He trusted him.

I was going to have to rethink how good of a judge Shuu really was.

"What shall we venture to do next?" Centaurumon asked Haruhiko, noting the tension in the room.

"I have to go to Odaiba," he said immediately. "I need to find Toshiko."

"Who?" I asked.

"My wife," he informed me quickly. "Sora said something… I have to talk with her. We're affecting Sora and her ability to save the world. We have to work through some stuff. Find out where we stand, so that we can better assist her."

"We'll come too," Shuu said. "We'll help make sure you get there without incident. We can't have you getting killed before you get there. That wouldn't help Sora at all. And Jou will need Sora's help. And Daisuke. It's getting worse out there."

"Right," I said. Anything to help my brother.

"I will assist as well," Meramon said quietly.

"And I go wherever my partner goes," Centaurumon said firmly.

"We should leave then," Haruhiko said with a small smile. "To help the digidestined."

And as we left, I couldn't help but think I'd finally found something useful to do. Something that might help to ensure that my brother got home safely. And no matter the danger I was about to face, it would be worth it.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** With Puppetmon out of the picture, things are looking up, but the tension is mounting, and the ultimate battle is growing ever closer. Shuu meets up with a familiar face, Hikari works with Takeru to find their way towards the camp, while Koushiro leads his group towards a fight they all know is coming. Mimi and Jou encounter a little problem on their way, and Takeru must try and keep it together when things start to get out of hand. Things are getting intense!


	39. Friendly Fire

**Y/N: **Wow…okay. So I wasn't really in Koushiro's mindset for this one, but I'm pretty happy with Mimi's part… and I loved Isao, who's a new character that took us forever to find a spot for, and is my brother's character, but I just love the interactions in his part, so let me know what you think, maybe, in a review? I'd love to hear from you.

**U/N:** Uhm... this chapter is going to be late, not done yet, it's long, sorry... but i think i should point out, I didn't feel like Hikari in Hikari's part, and in Takeru's part it's all... messy and... i just do NOT like it... but there wasn't much i could do... so many characters-anyway, i hope you like it... please review... and... sorry for it being late… Isao is awesome and so are the others… I like him…. Just saying.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 39: Friendly Fire**

_**Hikari:**_

"Do you not find it a little bit strange that everyone is splitting up?" Takeru asked me.

"No." I told him, "We always do that... it always ends up alright though!" He laughed a little. The two of us were walking, Lopmon and Patamon were running and flying up ahead, playing in the trees, through a path in the woods after having eaten a pizza and a few cups of coffee. I felt fantastic to say the least. The trees here were taller and yet more... dead than they were anywhere else. The leaves were rolled up and dry, with all the colour drained from them, the bark was peeling and boring... it was as if we were walking closer and closer to the source of... well—death.

"Do you think the others will be upset that we didn't invite them?" Takeru asked, he seemed to be playing twenty questions with me, learning what I thought about the situations that had been going on.

"I think we should keep it a secret." I told him thinking about everyone's reactions. Willis would likely laugh and be okay with it, Taichi would have glared at the two of us and demanded to know where the left over's were... "Yeah, a secret."

"That's probably a good idea." Takeru said with a smile as we came to a particularly steep part of the forest path. Takeru was running up the hill instantly before he turned and gestured for me to follow. I did so, running up after him. I could see he was watching me, laughing because I was running out of breathe. When I got to the top of the hill I punched him playfully on his arm and continued walking. He was still smiling at my attempt at running up the hill. I'd almost fallen once and was now out of breathe...

"So how do you feel about those who have gone and turned evil?" Takeru asked, skipping a little to catch up to me.

"I think they're all going to regret it and come back to our side either before the end of this or after—and when they do I, whether you and the others join me or not, will welcome them back with open arms." I told him simply. I didn't look to see his reaction, but judging by the sound he made, he thought my answer was logical.

"And what's going on with you and Iori?" Takeru asked. "You're not secretly dating him on the side are you?"

Again I punched him, a little harder this time, laughing. "No!" I shook my head, "He just wants to protect me."

"From what?" Takeru asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know." I told him, "He's been hanging around me for a few years actually... he's protecting me from something—and I think he knows what's coming. But I trust him. I'll be fine as long as Iori's around protecting me."

"He's just a kid." Takeru said snappishly.

"He's sixteen, Takeru." I said, looking toward him. He was biting his bottom lip and looking toward the ground. "He's not a kid... and I trust him. Just like I trust you, Taichi, Sora, Willis—"

"I get it." Takeru said flatly.

There was a silence after that... I wasn't sure what he wanted from me, I had answered his question... I cleared my throat, "So Takeru..." I said, deciding it was my turn to ask a question. "Is there any girls in your life?"

"What?" He gasped, coming to attention.

"I mean, we haven't talked much... I was wondering if there's a girl you have your eyes set on?" I clarified.

"There was." He said.

"Not anymore?" I asked, excitedly, I was curious to know who it was, and found myself bouncing around him like a rubber ball.

"She's taken." He said.

"It's Hana isn't it?" I asked him, "From Math class? You've mentioned her a few times—and then Kato came along and snatched her up. It was Hana wasn't it?"

"No." He said flatly. "Not Hana."

"Then—"

He cut me off, "Let's just keep going?" He suggested. "We're almost there..."

"Okay..." I sighed, I'd caused him to be in a bad mood and that was not exactly the intention, but I couldn't help it really, it had already happened. It was nice having Takeru back as my friend, even if I didn't exactly know how to talk to him anymore... it was like old times—only without Gatomon... I wished I could have her back... and so to do that I'd have to take out Piedmon... and the last time we had to do that, Takeru and Patamon had saved the day—and I had both of them right next to me... so I knew we could win—I had faith... I needed her back...

"Hikari..." Takeru said pointing to my waist. I looked down in surprise and saw that my digivice was glowing again. I pulled it out of my pocket and the rose coloured light shot into the sky. I looked up to the grey clouds up above and smiled as they parted for the light that was shining from my hands. "It must be nice." Takeru said, drawing my attention once more.

"What's nice?" I asked him.

"Being able to glow." He laughed, "You just parted the clouds, you're like a God! You can light up and read in the dark! You can do all sorts of cool things!"

"I don't exactly control it." I told him with a laugh as my digivice's glow faded to a dull pink and then dispersed completely.

"I know," He said nodding, "So why did it just do that?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "No clue."

"THAT WAS SO PRETTY!" I jumped. I had forgotten that Patamon and Lopmon were even here as they both shouted out in excitement running toward us. "What happened though?" Patamon continued.

"She doesn't know." Takeru answered for me. "It's strange isn't it?" Lopmon jumped up onto my shoulder as Patamon floated onto Takeru's head.

"Very." Patamon nodded.

"Hikari." At first I didn't think anything of it. I was surrounded by talking beings... but the voice didn't match any of them. "Hikari..." I turned around and stared at the boy who was standing in the trees. It was the same boy who was at the Temple. Gennai was able to see him.

"Takeru!" I said sharply, not looking away from the boy. I pointed to him. "Do you see that?"

"See what?" he asked, hurrying to stand next to me.

"That boy." I said. "The one with the black hair—well the only boy out there."

"There's no one there." Takeru said to me. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head. I wasn't okay. I was exhausted, thirsty, and scared. There was a mysterious, somewhat invisible boy that was following me around, Taichi had run off on his own and took my maybe-somewhat-kind of-boyfriend Willis with him, and Gatomon was still with Piedmon... So no, I was not okay, but there wasn't much I could do about it, I had to keep going. I had to push forward and I had to finish this adventure positively. I wanted Daisuke back. I had yet to see him since his disappearance and I'd been trying as hard as I could to think positively about it, but from what the others had told me... he was evil. Just... switched sides because he felt like it or something—I didn't know. I needed to see him... to talk to him. I missed him—he was like my brother... and he was important to me. I knew I should be blaming Kurayami but I wasn't. It wasn't her fault—it was Fanglongmon's fault and no matter how much everyone else seemed to hate that girl, I knew I wasn't going to. I had to stick to my gut. I needed to help her.

As I came back to my senses I noted that the boy was gone. I shook my head and looked to the ground. Lopmon patted me on the head comfortingly before Patamon let out an exasperated yelp.

"Takeru over there!" He said loudly.

We all looked the way we had come as to Patamon's point and gasped. There was a strange cloud of darkness seeping up the trail behind us. I didn't want to admit it, but the substance... whatever it was, felt oddly comforting. I had to force myself not to walk toward it.

"W-what is that?" Lopmon asked from my shoulder.

"Something dangerous." Takeru filled in slowly. "And I think we should run."

I heard Takeru stepping backward but I couldn't follow... I wanted to see what was in the cloud...

Suddenly I felt a hand around my wrist. I looked up and saw that it was Takeru and I sighed with relief as he dragged me along with him. I was only jogging—I didn't want to get too far away... I was interested in what the cloud was going to do.

"Hikari—come _on_!" Takeru growled. "You have to come!"

I nodded and picked up the pace a little.

"Hikari..." I stopped suddenly, ripping my hand from Takeru's grip causing Lopmon to fall off of my shoulder. I turned toward the cloud, eyes wide and gasped. The boy who I'd seen earlier was standing in the cloud, his arm stretched out, his eyes pleading. "Help me..." The boy seemed to flicker in and out of existence. "Help us."

_Us?_

"Hikari!" Takeru squeaked nervously. "Come on!" He grabbed my wrist but I shook him off as I hurried toward the cloud. I wanted to help him—help _them_! Whoever the other person was—I needed... to help them.

I heard Takeru running after me, but I knew I couldn't let him catch me—I had to enter the cloud of darkness—and I was about to. I was so close... I was almost there. Just a few more steps—

A hand reached from the cloud, a dark, wet, clawed hand. It grabbed onto my wrist tightly and pulled. I entered the cloud with a scream and the ground seemed to disappear. I was falling, and spinning. And I was scared. How had this happened? I hadn't had control... it was in my mind again— All around me were those creatures—the shadows from the dark ocean... There was no light... I felt as if this could have been the end... If I fell much further I would die... I could hardly see anything and it was getting darker and darker.

Soon I could barely see the outline of the red eyes that surrounded me... and I was no longer scared. I was relaxed... I let myself fall. Slowly closing my eyes... I'd just let them rest a little.

"Hikari!"

It was a boy... that boy with the dark hair. I needed to help him! I needed to save him... I looked down and saw him. I smiled at him and he smiled back. He was standing in a green meadow, a lovely field with flowers and small animals...

"HIKARI!" I closed my eyes and thought. That didn't sound like him... that wasn't right... I looked up slowly and saw a hand reaching down for me. I closed my eyes and screamed as the sound of screeching car wheels filled my ears and arms wrapped around me. "Hikari..."

I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I was in Takeru's arms.

"T-Takeru!" I stuttered, throwing my arms around his neck as he held me.

"Are you okay?" He asked me.

I nodded. "I am now..." I told him as I looked around. The dark cloud was gone, and standing a few feet away from us was Angemon and Lopmon.

"You should make a habit of not walking into lurking clouds of darkness." He joked as he set me down. "I really can't see the plus side of that."

I punched him lightly in the arm as Lopmon leapt onto my shoulder.

"We should go though." He smiled. "Angemon will take us... we're going to be late."

I smiled at Angemon as he scooped the two of us up and spread his wings.

That boy... the meadow... something about it all seemed familiar but I couldn't place it—what was it? There was something he wasn't telling me—or something he couldn't tell me—something my memory should have been telling me but was failing to do so... but none of that mattered. I needed to get to Fanglongmon's home at this point, and soon... soon we'd be able to worry about the small things...

_**Koushiro:**_

"Mom," I said frantically. "Mother you have to respond. Talk to me mom!"

"Kous-shiro?" she said in a thick voice. "Is that you?"

"Yes," I said. She was alright. I was so relieved, I'd been panicking since the two of them collapsed. "I'm right here. Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"I'm fine," she said. "I'm so glad you came. I was so worried about you."

"I was worried about you too," I told her. "Where's dad?"

"I—I don't know," she admitted fearfully. "I can't get a hold of him. Susumu is missing now too. He left for something, and he just hasn't come back yet. I can't find them!"

"Mom," I said calmly. "They'll be fine. Dad's probably caught up at work, right? He stays late all the time. And he's so focussed, he probably hasn't noticed the worlds' union."

"Maybe," she said sadly. "But I worry over him. I worry over you too."

"I know mom," I said. "I know you do. You don't have to though. I know what I'm doing."

Kind of anyway, but she didn't need to know that.

"But I never knew how dangerous it was," she said. "Not really. I thought it was a fun adventure. This is terrifying."

"And my little Hikari is still out there," Mrs. Yagami said, having just come around.

"But she's with Jou, and Takeru and Gennai," I said. "And _Mimi_. Nothing's going to happen to her. They won't allow it."

If mom noticed the way I stammered over Mimi's name, she didn't show it. I couldn't really bring myself to tell her anything about my…affections, and this wasn't a particularly good time.

"Is that enough though?" she asked. "Things are worse out there than we thought they could be."

"We don't know how to protect these people," mom continued.

"And our husbands are missing," Mrs. Yagami added.

"And our children are in constant danger, when we're helpless to protect them," mom said.

"It's a parent's job to protect their children," Mrs. Yagami agreed.

"But there's a time, when you have to let them stand on their own two feet," I reminded them. "And let them learn to protect themselves."

"They shouldn't have to protect their parents though," mom said sadly.

"And they shouldn't be children when it happens," Mrs. Yagami agreed. "Hikari was eight when she stopped needing me to protect her. That's too young. It's too young to handle this."

I just about groaned. I was tired. I was sore. I was not the right person to be handling a mother's tears. And I at a loss of how to make them understand that they _can't_ protect us in this situation…they have to let us take care of them.

"She's not eight anymore," I said. "She's eighteen, technically an adult. She's ready for this. She's been doing this for ten years. She's got the experience. She's not sick anymore, in case you were wondering. She's strong, and she's doing a hell of a job in this situation. You need to let us do our job. We were chosen for it. Not you. So it's not your responsibility. Trust us."

"Oh we do trust you, sweetie," mom said earnestly, afraid she'd hurt my feelings or something ridiculous. "I just wish I didn't have to."

I was going to have to be blunt. The patience this Sora had been trying to drill into me, along with being reasonable and empathetic was getting me nowhere.

"But you do," I said firmly. "Wishing for this to change won't make it happen. You can't change anything. You _can_ trust us, have faith in us, and give us something worth fighting for. You're our reason to protect our home. The people we care about. Just, believe in us okay?"

It was so awkward sounding.

I hated trying to comfort women.

As luck would have it, I didn't have to say anything more on the matter, because Taichi, Willis, Terriermon, Agumon, Tatum and Monodromon came in at that moment. Tatum looked terrible, her hair was sticking out in all different directions, she held a hand on her back, her clothing was torn, and she has cuts on her face, neck and arms. Monodromon was limping beside her. Terriermon looked worn, and Willis was breathing with laboured breath. Taichi however was wearing a proud smile.

"Agumon is the greatest rookie of all time," he declared. "He just took out a Dark Master with a can of hairspray."

"Willis gave me the chance," Agumon said modestly.

"Naw," Willis said. "It was all you buddy. You beat Puppetmon."

"He's the only one I didn't beat last time," he said shyly.

"So you've got a perfect record now then," Tatum said shakily, laughing through obvious pain.

"Come here, young lady," mom said sharply. "You shouldn't be walking right now. Let's see what I can do for you."

I mentally cheered. No more depressed mothers!

"Willis, dear, are you alright?" Mrs Yagami asked, looking him over with a critical eye.

"Fine," he lied, gritting his teeth.

"Come over here dear, I'll get you fixed up in a jiffy. With Taichi—and then Daisuke—I've got my fair share of first aid," she said with a wink. "Those two are quite the ruffians."

Willis was left with no choice but to follow her instructions.

"If nobody minds, I'm going to raid the refridgerator," Taichi announced. "These guys are going to need the energy if we're going straight to Fanglongmon." He gestured to the exhausted digimon, and I nodded, giving him the go ahead. "Excellent. C'mon Agumon, let's see what we can find."

Agumon followed him without question, followed quickly by Terriermon and Monodromon, who wanted to pick something out too.

"Are you okay?"

I turned quickly to see Yokomon and Tanemon looking up at me.

"Yeah," I said heaving a sigh of relief. I couldn't wait for this to be over. To not feel as though someone was going to attack me at every turn. "I'll be fine. How about you?"

"_We_ are fine," Tanemon said sassily. "You're just _going to be_ fine. That means that you're not fine now. I'm smart too you know."

"Of course you are," I said, kind of upset that she'd caught that. My shoulder was burning, I was so tired I was losing my connection to my brain, and I was starving.

"Where's Sora?" Yokomon asked softly, clearly understanding I didn't want to talk about it.

"I…don't know," I said. "I know she's with Miyako and Tentomon though."

"Tentomon?" Tanemon asked confused.

"I asked him to watch out for her," I admitted, blushing when I realized what it might sound like to them. Agumon had assumed I liked Sora, and _that_ was why I sent Tentomon with them. It was incredibly awkward when I had to convince him that it wasn't Sora I liked….

"That's really sweet of you," Tanemon said. I inwardly cheered again. Mimi's digimon thought I was sweet. Sora said that would be a good sign. "Better than when you chose that stupid laptop."

They were never going to let that go.

"Thank you," Yokomon said. "For protecting her when I couldn't."

"Anytime, Yokomon," I said, patting her head, while avoiding the giant flower as best I could. "Come on. Let's get you something to eat too."

I pulled Yokomon into the crook of my elbow, hoping she wouldn't fall. Tanemon looked at me expectantly, but I could only give her a sheepish grin. I was barely able to keep my fingers wrapped around the edge of my laptop. There was no way my bad arm could handle any more weight, and my good arm was already as full as it could get…

She huffed and made her way into the kitchen. Yokomon and I looked at each other; she seemed to be shrugging as best she could. I smiled and followed after the affronted in training digimon.

"Ha ha!" Taichi was saying as I came into the room. "Success. We have bread, and hard boiled eggs, and sliced deli meats and lettuce, raisons and honey. Now, which do you want?"

"Meat please," Agumon said, taking the pile of meat out of its package, and compiling it and four pieces of bread into a triple-decker sandwich. It looked good, but of course he'd taken all of the deli meats. Terriermon looked angrily at Agumon, before jumping to the counter too, grabbing an egg.

"I want eggs and lettuce," Terriermon said, starting to peel the hard-boiled egg in his hand, and taking just two pieces of lettuce. The superior look he send to Agumon almost made me laugh. It was as if he was saying 'That's how you make a sandwich, you don't act like a pig'. He actually _may_ have said that aloud now that I think of it…

I set Yokomon and my laptop on the counter, and took two slices of bread, putting a chocolate spread on them that I'd got out of the cupboard. Taichi looked immensely pleased when he saw it. I also took a handful of raisons, and set a slice of the bread and half of the raisons in front of Yokomon, and took the rest to Tanemon—on a little plate so she could feet dainty (she wouldn't want to eat off of the floor, if her glare was any indication)—before heading to the fridge to make myself something. Taichi was just piling whatever was left onto some bread, clearly desperate for some food. I took out a Tupperware dish of rice, and sprinkled raisons and honey over it. Didn't sound that great, but it was one of my favourites…

"You're eating without us?" Willis said coming into the kitchen with a big smile on his face. "I feel great." He must have seen the questioning looks on our faces.

"I feel woozy," Tatum said from behind him. "But I'm ready to keep going. Monodromon, have you eaten anything? We have to ask Mrs Izumi if it's okay first."

"It's not a problem dear," Mom said instantly. She ran up to the counter and started pulling things from the cupboards and even some from the fridge. "Give me ten minutes, and you'll have a feast."

I was ready to distract her, but I couldn't bring myself to stop her. She had a bright smile on her face. One that I rarely ever saw anymore. She was just so happy to be doing something useful for me and my friends… We had to leave, I knew that. This was a detour that Taichi didn't even want to go on. But this was important too, leaving my mother with _something_. There was no guarantee this time that I'd even be coming back.

Taichi moved to open his mouth—probably to stop her—but I cleared my throat and casually fiddled with the goggles on my forehead. He scowled briefly. "That sounds wonderful," he said instead.

"That was a nice thing you did there," Mrs Yagami said from beside me. I jumped, having not noticed her come in. I could just tell I was going to be on edge for weeks if I made it through this. I was not looking forwards to it.

"She needs it," I said, blushing at her praise.

"She was so worried about you. I've never seen her so focused. She was on a mission when we were hacking into your computer," she said.

"You were there too?" I asked in horror.

"Yeah," she said with a grin. "Prodigious!0801?"

"My password will be completely remodelled immediately following today's events," I told her hurriedly.

"I wouldn't doubt it," she said. She came closer to my ear. "Maybe something to do with Mimi _Izumi_?"

"No," I said a little too quickly and much too loudly.

She started laughing. "I thought Hikari was kidding. I'll have to tell her that her theory was correct."

"Please don't," I said quickly. "She'll know soon, maybe."

"Hey, I'm kidding," she said putting her hand on my shoulder. I bit my tongue, trying not to show any pain. But Mrs Yagami was a mother. Taichi's mother at that. I couldn't hold it all in. "You should get that checked out. It doesn't look good."

"Don't tell my mom," I said. I sounded like a petulant child, but it was a desperate time, and they _do_ call for desperate measures. I wasn't too proud to beg her.

"She'd want to know," she said hesitantly. "I'd want to know."

"She'll want to keep me here," I told her. "I'm much more use with the others. I need to be there. She'll just lock me in my room. And without Tentomon I'd have no way to escape. We're on the third floor."

"What if I loo—?"

"All done," Mom announced, cutting Mrs Yagami off. "Dig in kids. You're going to need all of your strength when you go to fight tomorrow."

"Tonight," Taichi corrected. "Well, now really. We've got to get going. We're supposed to meet up at the camp grounds. The others are probably already there. Eat fast guys."

"Not too fast," Mom corrected. "You don't want to choke."

"Right mom," I said smiling slightly. Even though most of us had already eaten, we all ate a little of what she made. It might've been my last homemade meal after all. I couldn't pass up my mom's cooking.

"Koushiro," she said, her happy voice wavering. "You'll be careful, won't you?"

"Of course I will," I said. "I always am."

"He's hardly ever on the front line, Mrs Izumi," Taichi said. "He's the brains of the operation. He'll be fine."

"I know," she said. "I have to believe he will, but I just need to know you'll _try_ to be safe."

"I will," I said softly. "You have to too. You've fallen victim to a digimon already. You're going to have to prepare yourself for defensive manoeuvres as well."

"We've got our weapons ready," Mrs Yagami said, when my mom couldn't. She'd started crying. I hated crying women. I was the world's _worst_ comforter. "And we're working on a plan."

"Good," Taichi said. "You're going to have to protect these people. You know what's going on, and you're just about the only ones that do. We're counting on you."

Both women brightened a bit at the trust he was instilling in them.

"We're counting on you too," Mrs Yagami told Taichi. "And find your sister. Keep her safe, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said.

"I love you mom," I said fighting back the awkward feeling I always got when openly displaying affections. "You keep safe."

"I love you too baby," she said holding herself back. She knew—I could tell—that I didn't want a hug right then. She was itching for it, but she didn't want to push me too far. She didn't know, of course, that I just didn't want her to find out about my injury…

It would have been nice though, to have my mother hug me one last time…just in case…

"Do you want my car?" Mrs Yagami asked suddenly. "That will get you there faster."

"We've got Airdramon," Tatum said, smiling at Monodromon. "We'll get there plenty fast."

"Then this is goodbye," Mom said sadly.

"No," Willis said. "It's a 'See you later' kind of moment."

"We'll be back," Terriermon agreed.

"And you'll get sick of us," Taichi added.

"On that note," I piped in. "We really need to get going."

"I like relaxed Koushiro much more than usual," Willis commented.

"Exhausted," I corrected. "Not relaxed. I'm exhausted."

"Well, I understand you better when you're exhausted," Taichi said. I sighed, and vowed to put a little more effort into sounding like myself.

We left the house then. Staying any longer would only give my mother more time to come up with a reason for us to stay behind. As it was, time was running short.

"Monodromon, digivolve to… Airdramon," Tatum announced loudly. I looked at her oddly, but figured it had to do with her mute digimon. Monodromon seemed to do exactly as she was saying however, and became Airdramon right before our eyes.

"All aboard," she said happily. "I'm so happy to be useful. Airdramon is a fantastic flyer. And guess what Airdramon! We're going to find Michael now. Isn't that great?"

Airdramon nodded, and we all clambered onto his back.

The trip was shorter than I expected. Ten minutes at the most. I'd been hoping for a little more time. I was nervous. I didn't know where Sora was, if she and Tentomon were even alive. I didn't know if I'd be of any use in this battle that was inevitable. Whether we faced Fanglongmon, Dragomon or Kurayami first, mattered not. It was a battle that we had to fight, and I was useless at the moment.

And Mimi was with Hikari…and Hikari was a major target at this point. I still hadn't pieced together the reasoning—nothing was adding up—but _she_ was the one the villains mentioned more often than not. No one else. That meant Mimi was currently with one of the most sought after groups. I should be worrying about the group as a whole, and I did feel guilty that I wasn't, but it was Mimi. I needed her to pull through this thing too. And I had her digimon with me…meaning she was just as helpless as I was in any given situation.

In any case, I wanted more time to prepare myself for the battle to come. It was time I didn't get.

It was worse, that Taichi and the others didn't seem bothered by it at all. Taichi and Terriermon were sharing their tale to Willis of when they were chased off by Puppetmon, and Agumon was telling Yokomon and Tanemon of his exciting defeat of Puppetmon. Tatum and Airdramon were conversing in their own way, asking me questions every once in a while. It was nice, to a degree, that she knew so much about digimon. That I wasn't the only one interested in this type of knowledge. I wondered idly why it was the outsiders I got along best with, rather than my long time friends…

"Holy sh—" Taichi started, only to be elbowed by Agumon. "—itake mushrooms…" he supplemented.

I understood his sentiments. The large campground we loved as children was gone. In its place was a large, black cavern of empty darkness. It didn't look inviting. Shivers ran down my spine just looking at it.

"Are any of the others back?" Willis asked, searching the grounds.

"I see no one," I said. "Perhaps we managed to be first?"

"That makes no sense," Taichi grumbled. "We made a detour. Where are they?"

"Is that them?" Agumon asked, pointing to the sky in the distance.

I squinted, trying to make out who was coming towards us. Whoever it was was small, and flying. Those two facts alone limited who it could be. It was as I was debating whether it was friend or foe, that I managed to identify the digimon.

"It's Angemon!" I exclaimed.

But that didn't make sense. Takeru was supposed to be with Hikari and Mimi and Jou and Gennai along with Otamamon, DemiVeemon and Gomamon. For there to only have been the two people that Angemon was carrying meant...

No. I had to think positive. They split up, rather than were destroyed. That sounded much better.

"Takeru!" Taichi yelled. "Over here."

"Taichi?" I heard Takeru call confused. Angemon flew over, and landed behind us, on Airdramon's back. He set Takeru and Hikari down. Lopmon was in Hikari's arms. The moment she saw Willis, however, she jumped at him.

"Willis! You're alive," she said happily.

"Of course I am," he said with a grin. "I had to live long enough to see you, didn't I?"

"I missed you," Terriermon said.

"I missed you too," Lopmon told her twin.

"But not too much," they said at the same time giving each other a measured look, realizing they'd agreed on something.

"You made it," Hikari said relieved, looking to her brother.

"But you're short some team members," Takeru noted. "Yamato, Sora, Miyako, Gabumon…"

"You're missing people too," I said. I didn't name them. It wasn't necessary.

"We split up," Takeru said.

"We went for pizza," Hikari elaborated.

"Yamato joined the dark side and the girls went to find themselves," I said simply.

"Yamato wouldn't do that," Takeru said instantly.

"I wouldn't have thought Iori could either," Willis said.

"Iori didn't," Hikari said. "I'm sure of it. So maybe Yamato did the same as him?"

"I hope so," Takeru said. "I don't think I could fight him…"

"I doubt we're able to fight any of them at the moment," Willis commented. "We're missing so many people."

"We'll manage," Hikari insisted. "They have Kurayami, Ken, Daisuke, Iori, Yamato and Michael then…and we have Koushiro, Willis, me, Takeru, Taichi and Tatum. It's simple really. Neither Daisuke nor Kurayami have a digimon, and Koushiro and I are in the same boat. Taichi and Agumon can handle Yamato and Gabumon, Takeru can take Iori—who I'm sure is on our side—because the highest he can reach is champion anyway. Tatum can go all out on Michael, leaving Willis with Terriermon and Lopmon against Ken and Wormmon. Easy."

"Okay," Taichi said. "Good plan."

"If we run into Fanglongmon, however, the plan is missing a few key elements…" I pointed out.

"No time for backing out now," Tatum said.

"It's time," Lopmon said. "I can feel it."

"Me too," Terriermon said solemnly, for once not arguing with his sister.

"Then let's break our way in there," Taichi said, and we made our descent.

_**Mimi:**_

I was too relaxed.

As strange as it is to admit that, it was true. The gentle rocking and swaying as I lay on top of Gomamon's fish friends was turning my body into jelly. I was dangerously close to falling asleep, like DemiVeemon had. And I knew I couldn't do that. If I did, I wouldn't want to wake up in time to help the others.

Not that I'd be of much use at the current time.

I still didn't have my digimon partner—nor did I have an idea of where she could possibly be.

"Are you sure?" Otamamon was saying to a fish. "Oh, me too. I love watermelon the best though. You don't know what that is? It's sweet and juicy and has a light, watered down fruity taste—hence the name _water_ melon. Yes. I like water too."

I couldn't even bring myself to glare at the small tadpole digimon. Why would he think it was a good idea to remind me that I was starving? It was kind of rude if you ask me.

"Are you asleep Mimi?" Gomamaon asked.

"No," I said. "Talk to me; keep me awake."

"I don't know what to talk about. I just wanted to make sure you were awake. In case we run into some…trouble," he said.

"And you think that's likely," I said, I didn't bother asking.

"Yes," he said. "The fish are worried. Some are even missing."

"It's probably the water," I said soothingly. "It's kind of gross and creepy."

"I'm more afraid it's something _in_ the water," he said nervously looking over the edge of the make-shift fish raft.

"Shadows and stuff?" I asked.

"Dragomon and stuff," he corrected. "Maybe that's why we haven't heard from him yet."

"Because he's trying to take over the aquatic population first?" I asked skeptically.

"No," he said. "Because he's _already_ taken over the waters."

"Relax a bit," I said. "It won't do us any good if you're too high strung to fight properly…not that I expect to."

"The fish are getting skittish," Otamamon announced.

Great. Now it looked like Gomamon's worries had more grounds to stand on. I really had hoped for some straightforward travelling.

"You still think it's nothing, Mimi?" Gomamon asked.

"I still _hope_ it's nothing," I told him. "Jou, what do you think?"

"Gomamon isn't allowed in the water," he said automatically.

"That doesn't make any sense," I said slowly, trying to work out his brain patterns. He was getting pretty spacey. "You aren't even paying attention to me."

"Sure," he said. I groaned, and pulled myself up to my knees. It wasn't nearly so relaxing like this….

"Jou Kido!" I yelled in his ear.

"What the hell Mimi," he shouted.

"Pay attention," I said.

"She's right," Gennai said, still clutching the egg he'd been given at Primary Village. "We need to keep our wits about us."

"That is something I will agree with," I said cheekily. "_I_'_m_ right."

"Guys," Gomamon said, but Jou didn't seem to hear him.

"What did you say then, if it was so important," he said. I could tell he'd just been worrying over Momoe. It wasn't like I really interrupted anything. He needed to stop dwelling on it, or he wouldn't be able to help save her.

"Oh no!" Otamamon said loudly.

"Listen to _them_," I hissed.

"What is it?" DemiVeemon said, waking up from his nap, and rubbing his eyes. He was so adorable. If I wasn't worried for our lives, I would have started cooing over him.

"I hope you all can swim," Gomamon said.

"I was programmed as such," Gennai said, still holding the egg. I hoped swimming wouldn't be too difficult for him with that thing. DemiVeemon looked terrified, and crawled up onto Jou's head. Jou looked annoyed.

"Gomamaon," Jou said. "I thought we came to the conclusion that you _weren't_ going into the water?"

"The fish aren't giving us any other—" he started, but had to stop, because the fish raft had disbanded, and we were all in the water. I was sinking, before I realized what was happening. I opened my eyes to see what was going on, and wished I hadn't. The usually beautiful water was so dark that I couldn't even see which way was up.

"_No one wants to talk to a _traitor_ like you!"_

It was my mother. Why was she here, in the water?

"_Your dreams don't matter. Do what I say. You'll end up fat, alone and worthless if you follow your plan. Mine is _so_ much better."_

I could almost hear my dad shifting in his seat in the background, not daring to speak up against my mother, but hopefully not agreeing with her entirely. But he would never say so. He would call me a traitor too, if it would please my mother.

"_You are no daughter of mine!"_

No. I had to focus. Mom was still in New York, ignoring my existence. She couldn't be bothered to worry about the state of Japan. She wasn't here. I was alone, and the water was just playing tricks on me.

There was no reason to want to cry.

I was running out of air anyway. I'd drown if I couldn't focus. I had to force my body to relax, and let myself float upwards, because I was hopelessly confused down there. When I broke the surface, I started coughing and trying to suck up as much oxygen as I possibly could.

I blinked the dark water out of my eyes, and turned to make sure everyone else was okay. Gomamon had jumped to help Jou, who was still playing host to DemiVeemon, thankfully. Otamamon was floating effortlessly next to them. Gennai looked like he was just standing there in the water, he was moving so little, but he still had the egg, so I didn't care if he had some sort of freaky swimming power.

Then again, when we first visited his home, it was underneath a lake, so I shouldn't have been so surprised.

Each of them—save for DemiVeemon who was out of the water—was trying to fight off the same visions as me. Personal demons that the water was dragging out. Jou looked heartbroken. Momoe must've been shouting at him in his, saying he was too late to save her, that he failed.

"_Your choice…family…or cooking?"_

I had to stop. I was letting visions in again. I had to think positively.

"Choice," Gomamon finished. "Is everyone okay?"

"No," Jou said, forcing off the visions, and resorting to the old argument, not letting anyone know how much the water was hurting him. "You're in the water. How is that okay?"

"Jou," Gomamaon said firmly. "I'm the best chance we've got of surviving this. You need to let me do my job."

"But—" he tried.

"No," Gomamaon said. "Now keep DemiVeemon above water. His arms are too small to keep him afloat. Otamamon, how's the situation?"

"The fish were scared of being taken by something. A few wanted to stay, to help you, but they couldn't hold us on their own. There just weren't enough of them," Otamamon said. "We have to get to shore though. Something is in there, and it might come after us next."

"Or," I pointed out. "It could eat fish and was hungry."

The two swimming digimon looked at me simultaneously.

"Yeah," I sighed. "It didn't sound likely to me either."

"_Get out. Traitors aren't allowed here. Get back to Japan where you want to be so desperately."_

"Shore's not that far off," Gomamon said. "We could get there really fast if I were Ikkakumon."

"Let's do that, because I can't stand this water," I said. "It's looks so slimy and gross. Like an oil spill happened or something." I didn't need to point out the nightmares it was showing us. They all knew. I didn't want to point out our weakness.

"It's actually not that bad," Gomamon said. "It's fairly clear, it's just black instead of the usual…well usually it's colourless…"

"Yeah, about that," Jou said. "Probably best if we get you out of the water immediately."

"I'm not changing sides Jou," Gomamaon said patiently. "You're too important to me. Besides, most of the others' digimon probably didn't join the dark side at all; they were just following their partners. So long as _you_ don't join them, I think I'll be okay."

Jou fidgeted nervously, and looked like he was trying to climb out of the water, despite there being no where nearby to go.

Gennai moved swiftly and suddenly. He bobbed underwater, and didn't come up for at least seven seconds. The water around his disappearance was moving erratically. When he resurfaced, he still had the egg, but it was only in one hand, and he was panting.

"We must go," he said quickly. "Now!"

"Why?" Otamamon asked in all his innocence. He just didn't see this as a bad time for questions.

"We _are_ the next target," he said. "They're shadow creatures, from the Dark Ocean. We've managed to get caught in Dragomon's domain."

"Aww," I whined. "Why us?"

"Would you really prefer someone else be in this danger?" Gennai asked, curious.

"No," I pouted. "I just. I didn't ever want to meet him again."

"We still might get away without the introduction," Jou said, starting to sound like his old self. "Gomamon!"

"Ready," Gomamaon said. "**Gomamon digivolve to… Ikkakumon!**"

Suddenly, instead of a white and purple seal, we were pushed away by a giant, furry white walrus. I doubted he took his size into account when he digivolved. We were much too close for it to happen any other way.

Jou immediately set about putting DemiVeemon up on Ikkakumon's back. Gennai helped Otamamon up, before climbing aboard himself. Jou turned and reached his hand out to me—to be a gentleman and help me aboard—but before I could, I was underwater again.

Something had wrapped itself around my ankle. When I looked, I could make out the shape of a tentacle. It had a strong grip, and I was freaking out. I hadn't gotten a good breath of air. If anything, I probably used what I had to scream before I was pulled under.

"_Please! Please, mommy I love you!"_

It was me, crying when we had our final argument.

"_I'm not your mother…. I don't know who you are anymore…. I have no children."_

Her phrases cut into me like daggers. It would be so much easier to give in to them. Let them take me in so I could get away from them. But…I shouldn't…right? Things were getting fuzzy. I couldn't remember anything, couldn't _think_ of anything, except getting away from my mother's hateful cries.

"Kid Claw!" came a muted voice. I turned to see Otamamon swimming towards the tentacle—my mother's voice forgotten—and scratching at it the best he could, ignoring his own nightmares the water induced. The tentacle loosened for a moment, before becoming even tighter. "Slamming Attack!"

Otamamon tackled the tentacle, making it loosen just enough for me to swim out of its clutches. "Let's go," he said, before swimming to the surface right in front of me, leading me. I was thankful for that, because I would've ended up further down if I'd lead myself.

"Mimi!" Jou shouted when I came to the surface again. "Are you alright."

"Something has tentacles," I said. "It's not shadowy at all. It's got tentacles. Why do I think that Dragomon has tentacles?" I asked Gennai with chattering teeth.

"He is a tentacle monster," Gennai said. "I said we'd encroached on his domain, did I not?"

"I didn't think you meant _he_ would be down there," I said. "Help me up, Jou."

He reached down from Ikkakumon's back, and pulled me up. He didn't even grunt, which made me feel better about the whole situation, oddly enough.

"Go," I said. "Go!"

"It is most definitely too late for that," a deep, bass voice said. "I was hoping for a nicer welcoming."

"Go," I said again. "Please?"

"Oh, you're not going anywhere."

I turned to face the owner of the voice. It couldn't be anyone other than Dragomon. He had a giant head, that reminded me of a squid, but, you know, with big pointy teeth, and a red symbol looked to be painted on his forehead. He wore a necklace of giant black pearls, and his arms were all tentacle like. In fact, they appeared to be made of tentacles, with silver chains holding them together so they could function as a regular arm. When I got a closer look, his shoulders seemed to have eyes of their own, and three spikes were sticking out of each one. He even had wings. Scary, red wings.

He reached out his left arm—the one with like seven or eight tentacles acting as fingers, as opposed to the right arm with just one big one—and the tentacles squirmed about as they neared us. Otamamon took another one out with his Slamming Attack. DemiVeemon tried his Pop Attack, which was as effective as Otamamon's tackling attack, meaning that it only distracted the tentacle for a moment. Gennai was doing a series of jumps and kicks. His method was much more effective than the two smaller digimon's tackling was.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon tried, but he wasn't able to get a good aim. We were on his back, and we were hindering his fighting abilities. As much as I didn't want to be in that water, I knew what we had to do in order to get out of this alive.

"Otamamon, DemiVeemon," I said. "Come here. Gennai, Jou, it's time to get off."

"But we just got on," Otamamon said sadly, clearly fearing the water.

"We want to win, don't we?" I asked, knowing I was asking a lot of them.

"You guys go," Jou said. "I'm going to help him."

"Right," I said, scooping Otamamon and DemiVeemon into my arms. Gennai karate chopped a tentacle that was coming after me, and the two of us slid down into the murky water. Gennai was still fighting even in the water, despite the fact that he only had a single arm to work with, as the other was still clutching the egg. I hoped that thing wouldn't hatch any time soon. It wouldn't do for the baby digimon to drown immediately.

"_I can't believe you would be so selfish! What about all we've worked for? All I've done for you."_

"_You did it for yourself," _I heard myself scream. _"You never think of _me_."_

"_Ungrateful wretch!"_

"Digivolve," Otamamon shouted, pulling me out of a particularly bad moment. "That's how to win!"

"Thanks," Jou said wryly. "I hadn't thought of that."

"**Ikkakumon digivolve to… Zudamon!**"

"Vulcan's Hammer!" Zudamon said, preparing to strike Dragomon with a sparking hammer. Oh, no he doesn't.

"Don't do that!" I shrieked. "_We_ are in the _water_. We'll die."

"Sorry," Zudamon said. He prepared a different attack with the same name instead. "Vulcan's Hammer!" He threw the giant hammer at Dragomon's face, it hit—hard—and bounced back as though it were a boomerang instead of a large metal hammer.

"Tentacle Claw!" Dragomon shouted in response, using his right arm—the one with the single tentacle—as though it were a blade, preparing to impale Zudamon.

"_I couldn't love a traitor like her."_

The cold indifference in my mother's voice was new. I'd never heard her say this. What was the water doing to me? Was I hearing what she thought right then, at that moment, when I stood a very good chance of dying? She couldn't bring herself to even say my name?

"Do something," I whispered through unshed tears. The mega level digimon could easily trump Zudamon. Jou had to work fast.

"Plesiomon would be most helpful right now," Gennai commented in a pained voice. Jou heard, and nodded.

"Now," he said frantically. "Now would be good."

"Right," Zudamon said, glowing a silvery colour.

"**Zudamon digivolve to… Plesiomon!**"

Plesiomon's long, winding figure easily manoeuvred himself out of harm's way.

"You're digivolutions will not win you this battle," Dragomon said, mocking us.

"But they will allow us to leave, to fight another day," Plesiomon said in a sort of siren-like voice. It made me feel so calm and relaxed, I would've forgot I was in the middle of a battle if I weren't staring straight at it.

"Forbidden Trident!" Dragomon shouted, raising his hand to throw a trident—I swear he didn't have it before—but he stopped before he could…

Because Plesiomon was singing out, a sorrowful song.

"Sorrow Blue!" Plesiomon called it, as he sang. Dragomon's arm lowered, as he lost the will to fight. He slowly sunk below the water level, out of view.

"Hurry children," Plesiomon said. I had to resist the urge to snap at that. Gennai had no such qualms.

"I'm not a child," he muttered.

"He will not stay gone long," Plesiomon continued, as though Gennai hadn't said anything. Plesiomon was hovering above the water, but reached down one of his fins, to allow Otamamon, Gennai and I to climb aboard. I still had DemiVeemon with me, he was perched on my shoulder.

Getting out of the water was a relief. I didn't think I'd have been able to bear it if I heard another word from my mother.

"Let's get to the bad guy's lair," I said. "We'll deal with them one at a time. We can't take both Dragomon and Fanglongmon on at once. It'd be too exhausting."

"Good idea," Jou said. For the first time since we'd got to the Digital World—well, before it became the united world we were currently in anyway—he looked hopeful. I prayed that we would be in time for that hope to be justified.

_Hold on Momoe,_ I thought, as I pushed my mother out of my mind for good. _We're almost there._

_**Takeru:**_

I was a little iffy on whether we should be running into the home of the greatest and strongest enemy we'd ever had with practically no fire power, but it's what the others wanted, and I couldn't argue with any of them, least of all Koushiro who was wearing the goggles.

I wasn't happy that we'd met up with the others. Well, I was—but I wasn't. Willis and Hikari were walking hand in hand again, Terriermon and Lopmon on either one's shoulder. It was nice to see that she was protected from all sides, but I wasn't happy that she'd left me for him... I was doing my best to ignore it, but it was impossible to do so.

Taichi and Agumon were ahead of us all, trudging through the darkness. We'd barely set foot into the giant pit of darkness when all light and happiness seemed to be drained. All light except for Hikari... I kept expecting her to suddenly glow or something incredibly awesome, but she wasn't, she was just walking next to Willis looking just as scared as I felt. I knew I shouldn't have felt scared—not with Angemon walking next to me and with my friends surrounding me... but everyone's faces showed that none of them were any more ready for this battle than I was. I glanced over my shoulder to Tatum who was walking nervously in the back of the group with Airdramon flying right above her.

Everything seemed wrong. I couldn't see how we could possibly succeed in this mess... I mean, logically it was a pretty even fight, leaning toward us simply because of Willis' two digimon... but for some reason the closer I got to whatever was happening... the more I knew that we needed help. We needed Jou, Mimi, Sora and Miyako. And even then... we needed something else to tip the battle in our favour...

Or we would lose...

Die...

If I was going to die there were a few things I needed to get off my chest first.

"_Hikari!" I yelled out suddenly, stopping everyone in their tracks. "Hikari, you need to come here."_

"_W-why?" She asked, turning to look at me._

"_Because I have to tell you something." I told her._

"_Whatever you have to tell my girlfriend you can say in front of me too." Willis said snidely, a look of anger across his face._

"_Fine." I said flatly. "Hikari. I love you."_

"_Oh Takeru!" She cried out, running toward me._

"Takeru?" Angemon asked pulling me from my totally fantastical dream. "Are you okay? You look... strange."

"I'm just thinking." I told Angemon with a smile. "Don't worry about it."

"If you say so." He said, looking very seriously ahead of us into the darkness. He looked so determined, but not scared. It was cool to have someone so confident be my partner... it made me feel a lot safer... like maybe we actually did stand a chance. "Are you sure?" He asked, noticing I was staring at him.

"Positive." I smiled, looking ahead. "We can do this."

"I never doubted us." Angemon said smiling suddenly before looking back ahead. "I trust you Takeru... you've grown so much. When I first met you, you were just a child obsessed with unhealthy foods."

"I still am," I smiled at him.

"But you're so much more now." He said nodding, "You're smarter, braver, more confident—brave... you've created bonds that I can hardly even understand with me and your friends, you've always known who you are, never wavering upon what's right and what's wrong—even though Fanglongmon had tried to get to you... You're a man now Takeru. And I'm proud to call you my best friend."

Fanglongmon... the creep had been in my mind back in Primary Village... I forced him out... it made me think that the reason he had gone to Ken was because I denied him... was it my fault that Ken had switched sides? And if so then whose fault was it that Daisuke had switched? He was literally scum on the bottom of the earth in my mind at that time. I couldn't see myself sparing him at all...

Maybe Angemon was wrong. If I was willing to kill my friend... was I really that mature? Was I really all those amazing things he'd said?

"Thanks Angemon..." I said, "You—"

"Not to cut short your happy time," Taichi warned from ahead of us, "But perhaps you should keep a little quieter." He raised his eyebrows at us. "Sorry guys... I just... don't want you all to do the whole touching moments thing. It makes me think that this is our last chance to do so."

"It's not." Hikari said, releasing Willis' hand. "We're going to win."

"You don't know that." Taichi said.

"No, you're right." Hikari said, now standing right in front of her brother, "But I can hope." She smiled, "We're doing this together and we'll have no chance at all if we think negatively. So promise me you're going to look to the bright side."

"I..." He looked nervously to the darkness surrounding us, "I promise."

"Good!" Hikari smiled, throwing her arms around him, forcing Lopmon to slide down and land on the ground. Hikari released her brother and stepped back. "I'm trusting you to get us through this Taichi."

"Well now you're just going to put pressure on him." Willis said slowly.

"He can take it." Agumon said encouragingly, placing his claw into Taichi's hand. "Taichi can handle anything." Taichi looked down to Agumon slowly and then smiled.

"You think so?" He asked.

"I know so." Agumon smiled.

"I thought we had no time for touching moments." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well for those of you who have that chance now, you may as well." Koushiro said quietly. "Just in case."

"I'm not." Willis said.

"Good!" Lopmon smiled, running toward him. "I don't want to even think about this being our last moment together!" She leapt into Willis' arms as Terriermon slid down from his shoulder to rest next to his sister.

"Me neither... I love you both too much to think about that." Terriermon smiled.

"Can we go find Michael now?" Tatum asked, cutting into the conversation from behind us. We all looked toward her, but she wasn't facing us. She was looking off into the darkness nervously. Everyone was silent as we stared at her, and the longer I watched her look into the darkness the more scared I became. I felt as if there was something out there watching us. After a moment of staring out there I heard a faint noise from the way we had come.

And apparently the others had heard it too. Airdramon, Angemon, Agumon, Terriermon and Lopmon were instantly surrounding us. Yokomon was trying to wiggle out of Koushiro's arms to help too, but he was holding her tightly as Tanemon hid behind his legs.

I moved quickly toward Tatum who looked like she'd seen a ghost—or something a lot more terrifying, and I had a feeling Fanglongmon was weaselling his way into her mind... and that meant he knew we were here... so was that him? Was Fanglongmon in the distance, coming toward us? Or was it one of the Dark Masters? I wasn't sure if any were still alive to be honest—we hadn't been keeping very well as a group...

We were all watching in silence though toward the sound which was getting closer—it sounded calm though... like wings... but water... or not... I couldn't figure out what it sounded like to be honest.

And then I saw something... it was too dark to make out, but there was definitely something coming for us.

"Prepare yourselves." Angemon said clearly.

"Should we digivolve?" Terriermon asked.

Willis nodded. "Go for it!" He said, his digivice glowing.

"**Terriermon digivolve to... Gargomon!**"

"**Lopmon digivolve to... Wendigomon!**"

"**Agumon digivolve to... Greymon!**" Taichi and Agumon had decided to join the digivolving party as we all watched the shape grow bigger as it came closer.

"Wait for it..." Taichi said with a grin on his face, "Three..."

Tatum was mumbling something to herself, quietly as she stared at the shape.

"Two..." Willis joined in.

Tatum was mumbling a little louder before turning to me and saying very quietly "Plesiomon..."

"One—!" Gargomon yelled joyfully.

"WAIT!" I screamed suddenly as Gargomon began firing away. "STOP!"

Everyone turned to me as I pushed past Gargomon and Angemon and ran toward the shape.

"Takeru!" Taichi growled, "Get back here!"

"It's not safe!" Angemon joined in.

"Trust him!" I heard Hikari say as I ran. I couldn't help but smile as I slid to a stop in front of the large white digimon that had been advancing upon us.

"Takeru?" The sing song voice of Plesiomon said above me.

"What?" I heard a nervous voice say, "Takeru?" I looked up and saw Jou's face poke out from around the beasts head. He was smiling excitedly, though I could tell he was scared, and could I really expect anything different from Jou? Suddenly another face looked out, also with a grin as her hair fell around her face, it was Mimi. I was really happy to see them—at least now I knew they were safe. I saw another set of feet behind Mimi so I knew Gennai was safe also, but he wasn't quite as excited to see me. They both looked like they had just been through a lot, and they were also very wet... Demiveemon and Otamamon both poked their heads out from on top of Mimi and Jou smiling.

"Jou!" I said exasperatedly, "Mimi! I have something to show you!"

Mimi let out a long excited scream as she leapt from Plesiomon with Otamamon and landed perfectly on the dark ground before running into me and pushing me excitedly. "Go! GO! SHOW ME!"

I laughed at her as I took her hand and set off at a run back to the others. As we came closer to the others I saw that the digimon were all still standing on guard.

"Oh stop!" I told them, "It's just Jou and Mimi!"

"Mimi?" I heard a small voice ask with Koushiro. I heard Mimi let out an excited gasp behind me as I dragged her past Greymon and Airdramon. As I came up to Koushiro I let her go and watched her slide to a stop as the small plant digimon leapt into her arms. "MIMI!"

"TANEMON!" Mimi screamed loudly. "Omigod! Omigod! I'm so happy!" She hugged Tanemon tightly as we all watched her in astonishment.

"You're never this happy to see me..." Otamamon pointed out from the top of Mimi's head.

"That's because you suck." Koushiro said bluntly.

Otamamon turned away from Koushiro and pouted as Mimi looked up to Koushiro angrily. "Why do you always have to be so mean?" She shot to him.

"Is this because of that phone call?" He asked her, "Mimi, I was being chased by Puppetmon—I couldn't exactly call you..."

"You were?" She asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't give me the chance..." He said.

They awkwardly stared at each other as Plesiomon flew toward us with Jou, Gennai and Demiveemon.

"Jou!" Hikari smiled, "Glad to see you're back." I was glad too... but I couldn't help notice that the only people that were apparently unaccounted for were Sora and Miyako... I could only hope they were alright...

"Of course I am." He smiled. "I'm ready to kick some ass and save Momoe and Aki... or whatever she's naming her!" he looked confused for a moment before shaking it off and smiling confidentially.

"If none of you mind me asking," Gennai said slowly, sliding off of Plesiomon's back, still holding the egg he had found in Primary Village. "Why are you all waiting around? Why don't you go in and fight."

Taichi nodded, "He has a point. Let's do this."

"There you go!" Greymon roared, "Taichi... we can do this!"

Taichi grinned at his digimon before turning and setting off through the darkness. The rest of us followed him quietly—except for Mimi who was talking excitedly with Tanemon, still hugging her... I was happy that she'd found Tanemon—I was trying to hard to make sure everyone found their partners... and now all that was left was Sora, Hikari and Miyako as far as I knew, and Yokomon was right in front of me, looking at the ground, a little sadly, likely thinking of Sora...

Sora had done so much for me—and of course she was trying to do more... but she wouldn't succeed... Hikari was with Willis—and I had to remember to tell Sora to lay off, because breaking them up would be bad... if Hikari and I were meant to be together... she'd break up with him eventually... so should I be telling her how I feel or not?

"What's that?" Willis asked, pulling me from my thoughts and pointing at a large black and silver set of doors.

"It's a door." I said at the same time as Koushiro, both of us rolling our eyes at him.

"Is Momoe behind it?" Jou asked.

"No." Gennai said, "It's your friends."

"And how do you know that?" Mimi snapped at him.

"I just do."

"We should digivolve." Angemon suggested. "We have to be stronger—we have to be ready to fight." I nodded at him and held out my digivice. "**Angemon digivolve to... Magnaangemon!**" I watched as Angemon digivolved, ignoring the other digimon digivolving to ultimate and then to Mega. Magnaangemon had no desire to digivolve further so I put my digivice back as Tanemon finished her digivolution process, emerging as Rosemon, standing next to a grinning Mimi.

We were all digivolved now... ready to fight... and there we were... staring at the door... almost afraid to open it...

Finally though, Taichi stepped forward and opened hurried to the door. He reached up to one of the large handles as Hikari hurried toward the other, grabbing it and following him. The digimon were all standing in front of us, ready for the battle as the doors opened.

For some reason I expected the battle to start instantly, but it didn't... the doors just led to more darkness... the room in front of us was no different than the one behind us.

"Gennai..." Taichi said, looking into the room, "I think you were wrong..." he slowly stepped into the room and looked around, "There's no one here... at all."

"Metal Wolf Claw!" I heard a familiar voice call from the darkness.

"Taichi!" WarGreymon shouted, diving into the room and using his shield to block the oncoming attack from hitting his partner.

The rest of the digimon followed him into the room, lastly was Plesiomon with Jou and Demiveemon still on his back, and finally the rest of us piled into the room. I still couldn't see anything, but I knew that Gennai was right now—they were there.

"Show yourselves!" Taichi ordered.

And they did.

Slowly four large digimon stepped from the darkness, I didn't recognize one, but as soon as Ken came out to stand next to him I knew it had to be Wormmon's mega form.

"Grankuwagamon." Tatum filled in for me, noticing my confusion.

I nodded, and swallowed hard—this was already scaring me... could we win?

Soon Iori and Michael showed themselves as well and finally Yamato.

"What are you doing?" I asked him quickly, jumping out in front of the digimon. "Why are you doing this?"

"Takeru, this doesn't concern you." Yamato said flatly.

"I'm your brother." I told him flatly. "Yes it does."

"No it doesn't." He argued.

"Well all I care about is winning at this point." Taichi said flatly. "I'm going to protect the ones I love, and I'm going to defeat you all. You've all made your choice—now prepare to lose."

"It wasn't a choice!" Michael said flatly, "Fanglongmon... was in my mind."

"He was in a number of ours as well." Taichi said. "But we didn't give in."

"You wouldn't understand then." Ken said flatly.

"Oh we do." Koushiro said, still holding Yokomon and stepping up next to me in front of the line of digimon. "Ken, you chose to join the dark side—which isn't all that surprising really, you've done it before. And just like before we'll defeat you. Because you're weak—spineless, and apparently a terrible boyfriend."

"Why do you hate me so much?" Ken shot to Koushiro.

"I don't hate you." Koushiro said flatly. "I just think you're a gutless coward who is choosing to ruin his life and taking everyone else down with him." There was complete silence in the room until Koushiro smiled to himself, "Also I'm smarter than you."

"Destroy him." Ken replied simply.

"Dimension Scissors!" The large black bug shouted without hesitation, slicing the air with its claws and sending waves of energy toward Koushiro and I.

Suddenly though something had hit us from the side, knocking us out of the way as the attack hit the wall behind us and caused the wall to crash loudly and cave in on itself. We landed roughly on the ground and I found myself sliding slowly to a stop before looking up to see a familiar red ladybug digimon floating around Koushiro and Yokomon.

"Tentomon!" Koushiro smiled, "You're back!"

"Just in the nick of time!" Miyako said, bursting through the crowd with a strange looking digimon that resembled an adult Silphymon following her. "You're welcome."

"Miyako?" Ken asked slowly, "You're okay?"

"Of course I am." She said snidely, "and I'm ready to kick your butt."

Suddenly the final digidestined followed Miyako through the group and smiled. "I'd help too!" She said slowly, "If I had a digimon"

"YOU DO!" Yokomon said loudly, "SORA IT'S ME!"

My attention was drawn toward the glowing red eyes of Grankuwagamon though... he hadn't forgotten his mission as he shot another attack toward Koushiro.

"Not this time." Koushiro said flatly, pulling out his digivice. "Let's do this!"

"**Tentomon warp digivolve to... Herculeskabuterimon!**" Tentomon glowed for a moment before emerging as a large golden bug of equal size to Grankuwagamon. He used his head as a shield, the attack deflecting.

There was total silence and stillness as the two digimon stared at each other angrily, I could literally feel the tension in the air.

Suddenly the two digimon lunged toward each other, with the digimon on either side of them lunging into battle as well.

_**Isao:**_

"And why do you think he'd be there?" Shinn asked me.

I shook my head and sighed, I'd have to explain it again—Shinn was a smart boy, but he never really did have any common sense. "I don't think he'll be there."

"Then why—" Shinn started.

"But I think that they might just know where he is." I finished. We were, of course, speaking of my son who had gone missing in the past couple days—Jou. He had told me that he'd had something important to tell me, but never called back and didn't pick up his phone. I wasn't pleased by this of course as he was my youngest son—I needed him to show me that he was okay.

And of course I was really curious as to what the important thing was. I assumed it was that he and Momoe were about to get married, but I couldn't be sure. And there were these monsters running around everywhere—I was pretty sure I'd run over a whole herd of weird bug ones—I felt bad of course—but they were just bugs... and monsters—just bug-monsters. And I'd almost run into some sort of unicorn—but thankfully I avoided that one. Otherwise my car would have been a total wreck. But perhaps it would be worth it if that creature had died.

"And why would they know that?" Shinn asked as I pulled into the Inoue driveway.

"Because Jou and Momoe are in a relationship." I explained to him, "If they know where Momoe is, then they know where Jou is."

"Oh I see." Shinn said as I put the car in park. I clicked my seatbelt off and hurriedly got out of the car. I heard Shinn do the same as I headed toward the front door. I walked up the stone steps and knocked on the peach coloured door. The door didn't look nice though. It looked like this was a poor family—the paint was peeling and there was a crack at the bottom. I raised my eyebrows and rolled my eyes as I heard someone hurrying to answer the door.

I heard locks clicking wildly before the door flung open and a girl with very tight clothing and colourful hair opened the door. Her eyes were green—but were clearly contacts.

So this was one of _those_ families.

"Um... hi?" The girl said, "Can I help you?"

"I hope so," I said through gritted teeth, I gave her my hand sceptically, "My name is Isao Kido, I'm searching for my son." She shook my hand and thought for a moment.

"Kido?" She asked, "Oh! Jou! Have you found him?"

"No." I told her, raising one eyebrow, "That would be why I am searching here."

"Oh well he's not here." She smiled, "I'm Chiziru by the way, Momoe's sister, I guess you're going to be my like... dad... kind of... soon!"

"Oh dear lord." I said quietly.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing," I told her, "Do you know where Momoe is?"

"No, do you?" She asked.

"No, I don't—" I tried, but was cut off by a voice in the house.

"Who is it Chiziru?" The voice asked, "Is it mom and dad?"

"No, it's Jou's dad!" Chiziru called back.

I was elbowed in the side by Shinn and I turned to look at him. He was grinning foolishly pointing casually toward Chiziru, "She seems nice, eh?"

"No." I said flatly turning back to see a messy blond head of hair. It was a boy this time, he seemed mostly presentable other than the fact that he was in his pyjamas and his hair was messy—he'd just woken up. And it was nearing midday now. And there was a war and an army of monsters outside—not someone I wanted to be in contact with for too long.

"So you're looking for Momoe?" The boy said, "My name is Mantarou," He smiled.

"Isao." I told him.

"I'm Shin!" Shin said to Chiziru who looked at him as if he were some creature made of a compilation of vomit and garbage.

"I'm looking for Jou, not your sister." I explained to him.

"Oh, well they'll probably be together." Mantarou explained, "Momoe was supposed to show up last night for a family dinner to tell us something important—but she didn't. We don't know where she is."

"Well thank you for your help." I said turning away from them.

"Maybe we can look together!" Chiziru grinned, jumping from the front door.

"No, I don't think that would be appropriate." I told her.

"Why not?" She asked, following me, "We're heading to the same place anyway—wherever that is..."

"Yeah dad!" Shin grinned, "C'mon! Let her come!"

"It's actually not a bad idea!" Mantarou agreed.

And soon all three of them were in the truck waiting for me to follow them and start driving. I groaned and got into the car. This was going to be a long search...

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** It's time for a mega-chapter, where Takeru, Miyako, Daisuke, Iori, Kurayami and Michael all take turns telling us how the battle runs its course, while Natsuni, Chikara, Isao and Yuuko keep us up to date on the outside. Things are really heating up now, as the story creeps closer and closer to its fiftieth and final chapter…


	40. We Meet Again!

**Y/N: **Woo-hoo! Finally done with this chapter. Something I've been waiting for since chapter fourteen has finally happened in there, so you'll just have to read and find out what that is—two things actually!—and I'm so glad that this one is out of the way. It was a major bit that needed to be dealt with, and I was both excited by it and terrified of working with it. I hope you like it enough to drop us a review, so we can see how we did. If you liked it and don't _want_ to review that's fine…I suppose…:-P Anyway, I'm not going to keep you any longer, on to the story! (Or my brother's author's note anyway…)

**U/N:** Uhm... REALLY crazy chapter-a lot happens, sorry about that-the next one is the one i've been looking forward to FOREVER, and it's also super exciting, but less long soo that's a plus :P But sorry about this aha :P I hope you like it though, and yeahhhhh review... and keep calm -_-

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 40: We Meet Again!**

_**Yuuko:**_

So Taichi was gone again with the others... what was I supposed to do now? Was that all the purpose I was going to serve in this war? It just didn't make sense... that was nothing. I felt like I needed to do more than to just confuse my child. It wasn't right... sure I wasn't sure if I was really supposed to do anything, but...

"Are you alright dear?" Yoshie asked from next to me. She was sitting at her kitchen table, looking down at her hands—or she was until she looked up to notice that I was upset.

"Are you?" I countered her.

"No," She admitted shamelessly. "I helped out our children—and I should feel happy... but for some reason... there's something missing from our mission. We did what we set out to do without even moving—but I don't feel accomplished."

"Well perhaps we should just accept that we've done what we set out to do." I said nodding, "And let our children handle themselves just like they told us to do. They're all old enough—even Hikari—and..."

"And?" Yoshie prodded.

"And that's what has to happen." I told her. "We'll just let it go."

"You're right." She said pushing her chair and standing up, heading nervously toward the fridge. I knew why she was nervous of course. Within the last couple hours there was a knock on the door and then we were suddenly being ambushed... of course when Puppetmon noticed the children were coming he'd panicked and started controlling us, sparing our lives before forcing us to shove our new friends in the cupboard under the sink... But that was over now...

I slowly looked toward the broken glass door that led to the porch and stared at the scorch marks left by the explosion that had killed Puppetmon...

"Your turn." Yoshie said.

"W-what?" I stuttered.

"You never told me what was wrong," she clarified turning to face me with a glass of water in her hand.

I looked down to the bowl of batter in front of her and smiled. "Nothing." I said honestly standing up. "We may have helped the children—but there's more than that. If destiny wants us to sit and do nothing—then screw destiny! We're going to get out there and save the planet! This might be my last stand as a mother—and there is no way in hell I'm letting my children do this on their own! We're baking those bombs and then we're going to go save the whole freaking _WORLD_!"

"Oh please calm down!" Yoshie said setting her water down and looking to me worried.

"You don't want to help?" I asked her.

"Oh no," She said with a grin, "I'm helping. All those evil digimon are going down!"

I smiled at her as we both lunged toward the bomb batter and continued baking. We didn't have our little digimon helpers anymore so this time it would likely be a little less messy... But once they were done... I would be out in the world saving everyone from those monsters.

_**Natsuni:**_

"Miss."

I ignored the voice. I might've been going crazy at that point, right? I'd had a bit of a nap, but it didn't amount to much. I was still dead tired. And I was still in a cage. With Noriko… that'd make anybody crazy.

"Miss," the voice said again. Now that I thought about it, it was familiar.

"Miss," the voice said more insistent this time.

My mind started pushing through the sleep deprived haze. I knew this voice. It was…a digimon. It was our guard, Goblimon. He was really nice. Not scary like LadyDevimon. In the movies, he would have been the…secret hero. He'd make a good ally.

"Goblimon," I said, before he could repeat himself anymore. He had a lot of patience. I figured he'd just repeat himself endlessly unless I actually answered him.

"I have news," he said. "The cat has left the building."

"You're mixing your phrases up buddy," I said. "It's 'The cat's out of the bag' or 'Elvis has left the building'."

"No," he insisted. "The cat has left, safely. The little cat that I 'did not' help escape?"

"Oh, Nyaromon," I said suddenly much more alert. I opened my eyes, and looked around our dark cage. Noriko was sitting against the wall opposite me, and Momoe had started pacing the floor. Her back had to be killing her by now. My mom always warned me about that part of a pregnancy. I didn't understand why. She was so strict, and I followed almost all of her rules. Getting pregnant at a very young age was against one of the rules I followed. I suppose it was just part of her conditioning. She wanted me to be the best house wife I could be. A proper house wife. She'd started giving me cooking lessons once a week the moment I turned thirteen, and had been giving me pregnancy tips since I turned fifteen. I figure eventually—when she actually thinks it's necessary—she'll be setting me up on dates with 'proper' young men, who would make 'excellent husbands'. I couldn't wait! Yeah, cue the sarcasm.

That was the best part about being in this cage, facing possible death if Iori didn't show up soon—death by boredom was a distinct possibility right about then, not to mention that LadyDevimon character—was that my death would prevent anymore lessons from my mother.

"Yes," Goblimon said, stopping my musing. "She has escaped safely. I feared she was taken by Piedmon, but I was wrong. He hasn't any idea where she's gone. It was a close call, but we have succeeded."

"Thanks to you," I pointed out, smiling when his green cheeks flushed a sort of pinky colour. He was kind of adorable.

"I did it for you," he said. "You wanted this."

"Thank you," I said. "You're really not so bad."

He seemed to be at a loss for words, making me giggle. He was just too cute. He stammered out a small "Thank you," and looked down the hall again.

"I must go now. It is best you get fed, is it not?" he asked.

"Food?" Momoe asked, stopping her pacing to come over to the two of us. "Food would be fantastic right now. Maybe that will make the baby settle down."

"Right away then," Goblimon said stiffly, as he always did when talking to anyone other than me. Noriko had even begun to look alive at the idea of food. As much as I despised her, it was a relief to see her moving. I'd thought she'd given up.

"Oh, please Jou," Momoe was muttering. "Hurry up. This baby is going to be the death of me."

"Don't say that," I told her. "You'll be fine."

"Not if it decides to come any time soon," she said. "I'm _really_ pregnant, Natsuni. This baby could come any minute now. I'm scared. And neither you nor Noriko is a doctor. You don't know how to deliver a baby. And these aren't exactly the conditions I'd imagined giving birth in. And I wanted drugs, you know? Pain meds? I want them, and lots, when the time comes, and I just don't see Goblimon coming up with an epidural if I need it."

"You need to relax," Noriko said suddenly. "This stressing just might make the baby come faster."

"She's right," I said with a defeated sigh. I hated to agree with her. "You need to relax. Jou is coming. Iori promised they'd come. And Iori never goes back on his promises. Never."

"How can he promise something like that though?" she asked in a small voice. "I know they'll _try_ to come. But can they really promise that they'll get to us? I'm trying to stay positive. The baby seems to think Jou's coming. Or…the baby just wants Jou here. I don't know. It kicks anytime he's mentioned."

"Then he's coming," I said. "Trust your baby. Trust me."

"I'll try," she said. Whatever else she was planning on saying though, was interrupted by the bone chilling voice of LadyDevimon.

"Keep up," she barked. "I have no patience for dawdling. Anyone who doesn't keep up will face my wrath. And no one wants that."

There were moans and groans and sounds of fear and exasperation following her announcement. I knew then, that she wasn't alone. She came into the dim lighting in the corridor outside of our cage, with the end of a chain in her hand. As she walked by, she cast a malicious smile in our direction, causing the three of us to slip closer to the back wall. My knees were shaking just looking at her. It seemed the longer we were there, the scarier she got.

That was when I caught sight of what she was leading with the chain. There were digimon, of various sizes and colours. They all looked so different, but so small in their fear. LadyDevimon pulled the chain roughly, causing a few to lose their footing. They hurried to their feet, afraid that LadyDevimon would make good on her threat.

"Impmon," Noriko whimpered. "No. Impmon!"

She ran to the bars of the cage, trying desperately to reach towards a dark—perhaps he was purple? If there was more light I'd have been able to tell—digimon, who looked just as desperate to get to her as Noriko was.

"What is she doing to you?" Noriko pleaded.

"Quiet!" LadyDevimon snapped, when Impmon looked ready to speak. "I said I will not tolerate disobedience. Get in line or prepare to die."

"Listen to her," Noriko cried. "Don't die. Just…don't die."

Impmon nodded slowly, and held his place in line.

"Good little human, finally being of use to us. Soon, you won't be needed. Half of the 'Chosen Children' have already succumb to Fanglongmon's wishes. The others will follow. No one can say no to the master," LadyDevimon purred to us, before dragging the digimon off out of sight. Noriko was sobbing, and Momoe tried to comfort her.

Even when Goblimon came back, offering us food, I couldn't focus.

My heart was pounding. Surely she didn't mean Iori or Jou. They would still save us. They had to. Iori promised.

_**Takeru:**_

And the battle was going crazy in a matter of seconds. It was like a minefield—explosions booming around us all. I was frozen on the spot—what was I supposed to do? The digimon seemed to have changed... each of them was savagely snapping and clawing their way into the battle, and it was terrifying... well, all of them except Yokomon who was still hugging Sora.

"It's time to digivolve." Sora said shakily to her partner who nodded and began to glow.

"Takeru, you need to get back." I heard someone say. I turned quickly toward the voice and saw that it was Tatum, reaching out to help me off the ground. I shook my head and pulled myself to my feet. "No, you must."

"No..." I told her, "this is stupid—this fighting needs to stop—why are all of us just accepting this?" I was trying to keep my focus off of Magnaangemon who was admittedly the most humane one out there in the battle, but he was still trying his best to slay the opponent, in this case he was teaming up with Megagargomon and Cherubimon to fight Antylomon, which for some reason was taking too much effort... Fanglongmon had clearly had some effect on the opponents...

I looked to the other battles briefly, seeing that Rosemon, Plesiomon, Valkyimon and Phoenixmon were all fighting Michael's Seadramon who was putting up a good fight. Jou had, thankfully, managed to get off of Plesiomon's back before the digimon had gone crazy. Wargreymon had taken to fighting Metalgarurumon on his own and he was losing... and in the middle of the battle Grankuwagamon was fighting Herculeskabuterimon.

"Because there's nothing we can do." She said as I continued to watch Herculeskabuterimon and Grankuwagamon fight. "They're worst enemies." She filled in, "Those two mega digimon have been fighting over the throne of the bug digimon for as long as anyone can remember... this isn't good."

"How do you know so much?" I asked her.

"I just do..." She explained with a wink.

"HEY!" We both spun quickly to see Michael storming toward us, he looked... angry... or something similar. "Takeru—why are you flirting with my girlfriend?"

"I thought we'd broken up." Tatum said, pushing me aside to confront him.

"But we both know we're still together Tatum." He rolled his eyes.

"I thought so..." She said, "But you seem to be heading down the wrong path—so maybe I was wrong?"

"W-what?" he asked, shaking his head, "Tatum I'm sorry... I just..." He winced and placed his fingers on his temples again, "No—no... I'm not sorry! You don't want to be with me? Fine!" Michael reached for Tatum's arm sharply but I moved as fast as I could and knocked his arm out of the way. "What are you doing Takeru? This doesn't concern you."

"Tatum is my friend." I told him flatly. "And if you try to hurt her, then it becomes my problem." His face screwed up with anger, and I knew it wasn't going to be good... he was being controlled by Fanglongmon and this wasn't Michael, so I didn't want to hurt him, but as he swung his fist at me I had no choice really, I moved out of the way and punched him as hard as I could in the stomach causing him to fall over.

"Michael..." Tatum muttered behind me. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her along with me.

"Just ignore him for now... we'll deal with him later." I told her, watching Koushiro yell at Ken.

"And you think you're going to win because you have Fanglongmon on your side?" Koushiro asked, eyebrows raised, "That's rich!"

"Well at least Fanglongmon gives me real power!" Ken snapped, drawing my attention toward him. He was standing on the other side of the giant battlefield, screaming his words to Koushiro who had to do the same. Even from where I was standing, through the darkness and the battling, I could see the wildness—the anger in Ken's eyes as he fought Koushiro... I could only hope that this was Fanglongmon's doing also... I didn't want Ken to turn into the digimon Kaiser again. "You're relying on a pair of old stupid goggles to keep you alive in this battle!"

"I'm relying on nothing other than my pure talent and my digimon." Koushiro said, reaching up and grabbing the goggles that were placed upon his head. He ripped them off of himself and threw them toward the ground. "And I'm going to win."

I moved quickly and scooped the goggles into my hand—I didn't want them to be ruined... once this was over Daisuke was going to want them back in one peice... and they were really quite special to Taichi and even Hikari as well... I threw them around my neck—I was already wearing a hat, I couldn't wear both—and then continued running with, leaving Tatum behind.

I knew where I was going... I was going to my brother—I needed to convince him he was wrong—convince him to stop this... for Dad—even though he had also lost his marbles... but he had a reason anyway—what with Mom missing—suddenly I felt my heart plummet... Mom was still somewhere out there—I'd forgotten... there was so much to get done and not enough time to do it... I had to stay calm though... otherwise I'd never get it all done... so much to do!

Suddenly I was on the ground again—with someone attacking me from the side. I was so focused that the pain seemed almost non existent—but I was ready to pass out from exhaustion, and so really, I was just quite confused. I didn't know who it was, but I was suddenly rolling around punching them angrily, and when I found out that it was Daisuke, I found myself scowling and punching harder that I thought possible. I had only gotten a few good punches in when I was pulled off of him by a strong arm. I looked up and saw Gennai looking down at me, unhappy as he held the egg in his other arm.

I looked to Daisuke who was roughly pulling himself to his feet, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Those are mine Takeru!" He was pointing at the goggles around my neck. I groaned loudly.

"Daisuke, this isn't the time." I snapped at him, pulling myself free from Gennai's grasp. "You're being an idiot—which you know, I should have expected—"

"Why are you always so mean to me?" Daisuke growled, "This has to end now! We've been arguing for much too long, what with Hikari and everything else life has thrown us. But you wearing those goggles has put it over the top—I'm done being your friend!"

"Oh no," I told him flatly, "Our friendship ended when you chose to join the dark side." I snapped, "And besides, I'm not using the goggles as leadership—I'm keeping them safe." I turned to see Demiveemon leap onto Gennai's shoulder.

"D-Demiveemon!" Daisuke called out, "You've come to join me? Let's defeat Takeru together!" He pulled out his digivice and pointed it to Demiveemon who just looked to Daisuke and shook his head.

"No." He said to his partner, "You're a total loser right now Daisuke... and I know this isn't you—but whenever you're ready to switch back to the world of the normal... I'd be happy to welcome you back."

"Y-you don't understand! This is the right choice!" Daisuke said smiling, "Listen to Fanglongmon—just give him a chance!"

"I have enough strength to ignore him." Demiveemon said. "I thought you would have too... but I guess not."

"B-but—" Daisuke tried.

"Stop arguing." It was a female voice. I turned to see Kurayami grabbing Daisuke's arm and squeezing it. "We don't have time for this."

"Oh but you have time to order all of your minions to attack us?" Gennai asked her loudly and sarcastically. "That makes perfect sense."

"We don't have time for arguing," Kurayami explained, "Because we have to go."

"Go where?" I asked her.

"Well... you can follow... to find out." She turned and set off at a run, leaving the confused Daisuke behind.

I set off after her but Daisuke grabbed my arm tightly. "Don't." He said flatly, his voice calm and warm—almost like normal. I looked back to Kurayami and saw Gennai running after her quickly. "Don't..." Daisuke repeated again before glancing to Demiveemon who had leapt to the ground, off of Gennai's shoulder. Daisuke shook his head and ran off. I didn't watch him, but turned to Demiveemon instead.

"You'd better stay back. It isn't safe." I told him.

"I know..." He said, "I just wish I could be out there fighting... I feel as useless as Otamamon."

I smiled at him, "You'll get your chance later. I promise," I told him.

"Is it safe for you humans to be out in the battle?" Demiveemon asked.

"No not really." I told him.

"Then where are you going?" He asked.

"To see my brother..."

"And what are they doing?" He pointed behind me so I turned quickly to see Ken grabbing Miyako's hand and Mimi ripping her away from him before Koushiro tackled Ken to the ground.

"Let's not worry about that right now..." I told him, "Go stand by..." I looked back to the people still by the door—the only seemingly safe place of this battle. Tatum was standing by Taichi, Willis and Hikari. "Hikari—go to Hikari—stay safe there." I told him with a smile. "I'll be back soon... Tell her that."

"Yes sir!" He said before bouncing off toward Hikari.

I looked back to the battle and groaned.

There was a large area between Yamato and I, and in that space Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon were fighting each other, one using his long sword like claws, and one biting and barking.

It was literally the most ferocious and terrifying thing I'd ever seen, but I couldn't let it get in my way... I had to get to Yamato... and apparently Sora who was standing next to him. I saw Iori sitting by himself, looking away from the battle in my peripheral vision, and Jou screaming and cheering on his digimon not far from me, but I ignored them and hurried toward Yamato. I closed my eyes and ran—around the battle as best I could of course—I wasn't stupid enough to run right in between the most ferocious and terrifying sight of my life. When I opened my eyes I saw that I'd gone a little bit too far over which was a little embarrassing thinking of who may have been watching me be stupid like that—but then again, most of the others were focusing on something much more important than where I was heading.

I looked toward Yamato once more and ran, ignoring the fact that Hikari was likely watching me, having just been told by Demiveemon that I'd be right back—Why did I tell him to say that? Why would she care? Way to give away all of your secrets Takeru!

I shook my head and slid to a stop on the cold concrete floor in the darkness, ending up next to Yamato and Sora.

"I'm not evil though," Yamato insisted, "It's just Fanglongmon."

"The others aren't able to admit that..." Sora said with a scowl. "You called me over here to tell me lies Yamato. I'm not okay with that. I'm done with this... and I'm done with you." She smiled before turning and stalking off, patting me on the back. "Good luck..."

"Thanks..." I told her before turning to Yamato. "You're not evil?"

"Okay, Fanglongmon isn't really in my mind." Yamato explained.

"So you _are_ evil?" I asked him in astonishment, "On your own accord?"

"No—you don't understand—"

"Dad is out there fighting for our lives—he's trying to save us and you're now working against him!" I roared with anger, unable to help myself. "What kind of son are you? What kind of _brother_ are you?"

"Taker—"

"And _Mom_!" I snapped, "Mom is gone. Missing! No one knows where she is and—well actually you probably do, don't you? Working with the enemy—where is she?" I snapped at him, "Where is Mom?" I could literally feel the anger pulling at every part of me, I felt like I was going to implode if I didn't let my anger out soon—and the only punch-able thing I could see anywhere near me was my brother's face.

"Takeru, you're not understanding!" Yamato said quickly, "Just listen—"

I turned and ran.

I couldn't help it.

I didn't want to do something I'd regret... I had to get out of this without any losses... without any problems—I wanted a clean slate when I was done this war...

And that meant that I had to stop being so angry at everything—I knew it was partially because I was so tired... but I couldn't help it—Daisuke and Yamato were both being such... idiots. I couldn't deal with any more stupidity or I would literally explode and that was not a clean slate—that was a slate covered in blood, guts and whatever else would end up there if I exploded.

"Takeru!"

I turned and saw that I had just run right past Hikari who was now standing with Willis, Mimi and Miyako. I saw that Taichi had gone to take his turn at Yamato apparently. "Where are you going? Do you have a plan?" I shook my head as I ran toward her, panting—I'd been doing so much running lately.

"No..." I told her.

"I want Momoe back." Miyako said through uncontrollable sobs. I must have missed something, but I knew it was better not to ask.

"Then let's do that." I said confidentially. "That's what has to happen. We'll get Momoe and the others, and then we'll end this stupid war... and go to sleep."

"Maybe we could get one of those pizza's I've been hearing so much about?" Willis asked, elbowing Hikari who giggled.

"But Momoe first." Miyako, Mimi and I said together.

"Did I hear Momoe?" I turned to see Jou running toward me. "We're saving Momoe? Can I help?"

"No Jou," I said sarcastically, "We are going to decline your request to help save your baby's mother."

"Well that's just not fair..." He said slowly.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm before running. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going, but I knew that Momoe needed saving... and I was going to help her. Partly because I was a good person, but partly because I had to repay Jou. That man had saved my life more times than I could count and it was my turn to help him out by saving his girlfriend.

"Takeru!" Mimi yelled, stopping me. "We need help."

"Help?" I asked.

"Valkyrimon!" Miyako yelled, "Come with us!"

"Good plan!" I said with a smile, "Magnaangemon—you too!"

"Rosemon!" Mimi yelled motioning for her to follow.

"I'll let Plesiomon fight." Jou said and Willis nodded, "They need help here too."

"Then let's go!" Willis said before we all turned and ran to the obvious door at the right side of the room. There were four doors. I had a good feeling that Fanglongmon would be down the center door, but there were still two more doors and everyone went right, so they must have all had the same feeling that I did.

There was no door though, it was just an archway really, but that didn't change anything—I still needed to keep going.

"Iori is behind us." Miyako said, rubbing her eyes while running. It was only loud enough for Mimi and I to hear, so we both looked back, past Hikari, Willis, Jou and the digimon and she was right. Iori was following us at a run. I groaned... again.

"He's going to try and stop us." Mimi said slowly.

"Then we need to split up." I told them.

"Iori hates when we split up though..." Miyako said quickly.

"Exactly!" I smiled, "He doesn't have his digimon with him, so he shouldn't be too much trouble, but at the same time—we don't know what Fanglongmon is capable of so it's just safe to split up. That way if he gets some of us the rest of us can keep looking."

"Good idea!" Miyako cheered as we came to an intersection in the road.

"Perfect!" I smiled, grabbing Mimi's arm. "Miyako, you go that way!" I called out to her, dragging Mimi to the right. I looked behind me and saw that Jou had taken Miyako's hand to comfort her and ran with her and Valkyrimon. Iori followed them...

I smiled with our large group... we could find them! This wouldn't be too bad!

"Why did we split up?" Hikari called out to me.

"To make it easier to take you all down?" A voice said suggestively before the wall seemed to melt away. As the first ugly boot stepped through the hole in the wall next to us I knew who it was.

"Piedmon!" We all said together—apparently they all recognized me as well.

"Rosemon!" Mimi ordered, "Attack!" Rosemon nodded and ran toward Piedmon.

"Time to take down the clown." Rosemon grinned as she shot her attack toward Piedmon who drew one of his three remaining swords and sliced through the attack grinning as he reached into his pocket.

"You see, I was about to play a little game... but I see that I have to play a preliminary match first." He was smiling, but practically growling his words as his eyes flared with anger. He suddenly pulled something white from his pocket and threw it toward Rosemon.

I recognized it instantly... it was a large white sheet that was covering Rosemon. I heard her scream... a blood curdling roar. I winced and looked away, and when I looked back, Piedmon was pulling the sheet away revealing a small Rosemon keychain.

"Rosemon!" Mimi screamed, racing Piedmon toward the keychain.

"You too?" Piedmon asked, reaching into his pocket.

"Mimi!" Willis shouted, "_MOVE_!" He was racing after Mimi now. Just as Piedmon threw the sheet Willis dived toward Mimi and the sheet hit both of them.

"Willis!" Hikari yelled running forward. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Do you want to be taken too?" I asked her sharply as Piedmon collected his new keychains.

"N-no..." She admitted.

"Allow me." Magnaangemon said stepping forward.

"NO!" I snapped, "We need you to return Willis and the others to their normal state! Stay back!"

Magnaangemon begrudgingly stepped back, behind us. Hikari was biting her bottom lip in fear as she watched Piedmon cackle.

"So what's that game of yours?" I asked him as confidentially as I could.

Piedmon stopped laughing and turned toward me with a grin. Suddenly lights above us seemed to appear and turn on, flickering and lighting the hallway like strobe lights. "You will soon see before you three doors!" Piedmon said loudly, "You must pick one before the timer runs out... are you ready?"

"What are the doors for?" Hikari asked.

"GO!" Piedmon ignored her, motioning to the wall.

Three doors seemed to melt into existence on the wall next to us, each of them were dark, rusted metal with a large silver number on them.

"Which one?" I asked Hikari, "What do you think?"

"I-I don't know!" She stuttered. She was terrified. I took her hand and squeezed it.

"Time's running out!" Piedmon grinned motioning to the large golden hourglass he suddenly held in his hand. "Five... four..."

"Which one?" Hikari asked me this time.

"Three... two..." Piedmon continued.

"I don't know!" I shouted.

"One..."

"NUMBER THREE!" Hikari and I shouted together.

"Wonderful!" Piedmon said in a false cheery voice. He snapped his fingers and the hourglass vanished so he could clap his hands, which he did three times.

We both looked toward the door in a panic—what had we chosen? What did we do? The doors all opened at once and my heart skipped a beat. Each room was a small rounded indent in the hall lit by a very steady orange light. My mother was in all three doors. Her eyes were terrified, her hair was a mess and she was screaming.

"Takeru..." Hikari said squeezing my hand back.

"Takeru?" All three mothers said, "Takeru! My baby!" I closed my eyes.

_Control your anger Takeru... control your anger..._

"Mother number one!" Piedmon smiled, "Show yourself!"

I looked up in fear as the first mother grinned wickedly and morphed into a Bakemon. My heart practically died with relief as I looked to the second mother who was watching the first Bakemon fly away.

"Mother number two!" Piedmon smiled motioning to the middle door where the second mother smiled similarily to the first mother and with a small _poof_ she was also a Bakemon.

"Oh lookie!" Piedmon smiled. "Looks like you chose right!"

I smiled, "So I get to keep her? She's safe?" I asked, turning to him excitedly.

"No." He said drawing his third sword and throwing it quickly before jumping back into the doorway he had created.

I heard my mother scream and I turned to her, eyes wide. "MOM!" I screamed, "MOM!" She looked down at me, her eyes trying to show compassion as the door shut in front of her.

I turned toward Piedmon.

"Screw controlling anger..." I snapped, "Piedmon you BIT—!" I was cut off as I dived toward him and punched him in the face. Pidemon laughed as he threw me aside and clapped his hands.

"Until we meet again." He said with a grin as the door rebuilt around him.

I ran toward the door and began slamming my fist into it. "OPEN!" I screamed "OPEN NOW!" I was screaming to try and force the tears to stay back, but as Hikari pushed me away from the door and threw her arms around me I couldn't do so anymore. All I could do was hug her back and cry.

_**Daisuke:**_

Everything was wrong.

DemiVeemon was supposed to be my partner. We were supposed to want to do everything together. We were a team. But he wouldn't come with me. I needed him. I had nothing else. But he didn't want me anymore. He hated me.

And Takeru had my damn goggles. Taichi gave them to me. To _me._ He said I was a good leader, and a good leader needed a pair of goggles. But Sora had taken them from me too. And now Takeru, _Takeru_, had the goggles. He'd fought me tooth and nail the entire time we were facing off against Ken and Mummymon and the control spire digimon. He was the one everyone looked to. Him or Taichi. But I was the leader. I _was_.

Sora had taken that from me when she took the goggles. No one bothered listening to Daisuke when she had the goggles. I needed them to make people see me. They couldn't treat me the same as my parents. I couldn't handle that.

Fanglongmon promised me I'd be the leader again, he promised me I was exactly what he needed.

But I wasn't.

Kurayami was the leader. Even a blind man could see that. She was the only one Fanglongmon ever told his plans to. And the minute she got Ken to join the fight, I was tossed away like yesterday's trash. Again.

Things weren't right at all.

When was I going to finally find where I belonged? When were people going to open their eyes and see _me_? Not the idiot they expect. I could lead. I was a great leader. But they pass the jokes and tension relievers as me and ignore everything else.

I was alone.

I would always be alone.

No. That wasn't me talking. That was…not Fanglongmon exactly. Well, maybe it was. I couldn't tell anymore. What were my thoughts and what were his? Where was the line?

But when Takeru started to follow after Gennai and Kurayami I couldn't help it. I had to save him. I couldn't bear the thought of what we were going to do, and I was practically a brainless follower. He knew who he was, and this would break him.

I reached out and took a tight hold of his arm.

"Don't."

He looked at me confused, turned to look at Kurayami, watching Gennai run after her desperate to be in control, to know something before the digidestined did, and then he looked back at me.

"Don't," I repeated.

He saw me then. Really saw me. Just for a second. But then it was gone.

DemiVeemon had caught my attention, pulling me back into the depression and despair that Fanglongmon used to hold me prisoner.

No. Not hold me prisoner. I _wanted_ to be there.

Of course I did…didn't I?

I shook my head harshly. What was I even trying to think about? I didn't have time for this. I didn't look at either Takeru or DemiVeemon again. Instead I ran off, into the dark tunnels that I was finally able to navigate.

I headed towards the lab.

Things were about to get very interesting for the digidestined who fought against my master.

And if I could trust myself to know my own thoughts from Fanglongmon's input, I would have guessed that things were going to get horrific very fast...

_**Miyako:**_

I heard the pounding of running feet behind us. I through a quick glance over my shoulder and saw Iori running after us, confirming what I'd though.

"Iori is behind us," I said, rubbing my eyes. I'd been crying so hard, and was so tired, that everything was really blurry, even with my glasses. I couldn't believe Ken could have thought I'd be so easy to win over. Fanglongmon was not getting his mitts on Miyako Inoue. No sir. But it still stung that Ken thought a few petty words would get me to join his new cause. And when that didn't work, I suppose he though kidnapping me might. I was so relieved when Mimi grabbed my other arm. I was too upset to fight back, but Mimi was…well Mimi. She was going to fight and fight hard with everything she had left. And when Koushiro tackled Ken, I was both relieved and horrified. Ken was still there somewhere, right? And Koushiro seemed to have some sort of personal grudge against him. I just didn't want Koushrio to get hurt. Ken didn't seem to have any qualms with hurting his friends, and Koushiro wasn't exactly a natural born fighter, if you catch my drift.

Takeru groaned, pulling me out of my reverie.

"He's going to try and stop us," Mimi pointed out.

"Then we need to split up," Takeru announced.

"Iori hates when we split up though…" I said quickly. Iori was just a little boy. It was the only thing he couldn't stand, and we'd been doing it a lot lately. In fact, he split himself off of our group just hours ago…

"Exactly!" Takeru exclaimed. "He doesn't have his digimon with him, so he shouldn't be too much trouble, but at the same time—we don't know what Fanglongmon is capable of, so it's just safe to split up. That way, if he gets some of us, the rest of us can keep looking."

"Good idea!" I said happily. As luck would have it, at that moment we came for a fork in the road. The hallway split itself, leaving just two directions.

"Perfect!" Takeru said, having noticed the same thing I did. He grabbed Mimi's arm and started pulling her to the path on the right. Hikari followed after him, and Willis was right by her side, holding her hand. "Miyako, you go that way!"

Jou grabbed my hand, and squeezed it. Only then did I realize that I was still crying softly. What had the world come to? The Digital World was not suppose to be so dangerous, and the Dark Ocean was supposed to be a secluded area of depressing stuff, that no one ever got to see, and Earth was supposed to be relatively safe too. Instead we were all turning against one another, and fighting over each other, and trying to save our pregnant sisters, and struggling to stay awake and alive.

"Keep moving," Jou murmured, pulling me along. I forced my feet to move, and Valkyrimon flew ahead of us, making sure the path was danger-free.

"I hope we find her," I said, looking over my shoulder hesitantly, only to see that _we_ were the group that Iori decided to follow. I supposed he saw that the others had MagnaAngemon and Rosemon and decided to go for the group with lighter artillery. Well, he chose wrong. Valkryimon and I had taken out a Dark Master after all. Iori would be no sweat compared to that.

My heart stopped in my chest as an icy cold feeling slide over me.

Was it really coming to that? Could I attack Iori? The sweet little boy my sisters used to babysit before I was old enough to take over. The little boy who can't lie and always keeps his promises. One of my closest friends, and the smartest most honourable little boy I've ever met. I couldn't do that. I couldn't look him in the eye and have my digimon attack him. He was too sweet, too adorable, too _Iori_ to do that. He was like a little brother, with all the time we'd spent together growing up. I promised his mother I'd look out for him when I was just eleven. I couldn't attack him after that. That would break that promise so completely… It would break me.

"As bad as it sounds," Jou said, breaking through my horror. I was very thankful he hadn't noticed my visit to crazy-town. "I don't want the others to find her. I want to do it. You know?"

"I know exactly how you feel," I said trying for a smile. "I want to find my big sister. I want to see her before the others do. I just want to hug her and never let her go."

"Well, that's exactly the same train of thought I had," he joked. "One of us is going to have to give though. We can't both just hold her forever."

"I suppose not," I said with a small, forced, laugh. "If she's going to have a baby, I'll have to let _you_ hold her. She's going to crush you, you know, when the time comes."

"I hope we'll be afforded that," he said. "I just hope she hasn't already gone into labour."

"She's strong," I said. "And stubborn. She won't let the baby leave until you're there."

"That's probably not healthy," he mused.

"I was kidding," I pointed out. The footsteps were still following us. "He's catching up."

"He's younger than us," Jou said defensively. "He's bound to have more energy."

"And they might have been given a nap or something for joining the dark side," I joked. "Join us, we'll let you sleep!"

Jou laughed. "That might be how they won so many over."

"That or he threatened them," I said sadly, sobering the mood. Running was getting hard.

"Found their weakness and exploited it more likely," Jou corrected.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"He tried it with me. That's why I need to find Momoe _now_. She's what he's going to use against me," he said quickly.

I doubled my efforts, running a little faster now. Things just got more desperate. That evil digimon wanted to hurt my big sister, and my little baby niece or nephew. The niece or nephew I didn't know about just twenty-six hours ago… but whatever. He wasn't going to hurt either of them!

But there was nothing more I could do. We were running faster, but the hallway didn't seem to want to end, and there was nothing but solid walls on either side. If the whole place didn't look like a dungeon, I would have suggested we try to find one. But it did look like a dark underground, stone keep, and so I was starting to freak out.

I didn't do well with stress. Mantarou, he didn't stress, and Chizuru didn't let anything get to her. Momoe _could_ get stressed, if she let herself, but me… I went into full blown panic attacks all the time. I seemed to lack any of the laid back qualities that described my eldest siblings. Momoe was the one I related to most. Nothing could happen to her.

My breathing was becoming laboured.

I couldn't do this, not then. Momoe needed me. I couldn't get an attack when she needed me. I'd be useless if I did.

"Screw it," Jou said uncharacteristically. His face was hardened, and he stopped running. I stopped later than him, having been caught by surprise. I thought about running closer to him, but the look on his face, and the look he was giving Iori made me stop. I couldn't hurt Iori, I'd already decided that. But I couldn't exactly _stop_ Jou either. He was at his wit's end too.

"Enough," Jou said, he pulled his fist back and took a swing at Iori. Jou's fist hit him right on the left cheek. Iori fell backwards onto his back.

"What was that for?" Iori groaned.

"No. You don't get to try and talk us out of this. It's my girlfriend, Iori. Miyako's sister. My baby! You're not keeping me away from them anymore. I can't take this. What does he have on you, Iori? Fanglongmon is using Daisuke clearly because Sora took his goggles, the one thing he perceived as making him leader, what made him useful. He felt hopeless, and Fanglongmon snatched him up. Ken wanted to feel strong, or something I don't know. Michael just wants to be liked. Yamato has a tendency to do what you least expect of him, and he probably felt unappreciated. He has a weak conscience. Anything that makes him feel useful and needed, he'll do it. Cherrymon has convinced him of the same thing in the past. But you…you're supposed to be the most determined. You're honourable, Iori. You can't lie, you keep promises, you…you're too _good_. What does he have on you!" Jou demanded.

"Jou…" Iori said.

"No, you're not getting me to join him," jou interrupted him. "You shouldn't have given in to him. Did he try and convince you that this was the only way to save Natsuni, Momoe and Noriko? Cause he's wrong. We could've done it without him. We're _going_ to do it without him."

"I know," Iori said. "Fanglongmon sucks, I got it."

It surprised Jou enough to let him continue speaking. It was as if he broke Jou. He caught me by surprise too, I'll admit.

"If you know, why did you do it," I said harshly.

"I didn't," he said shrugging his shoulders. He was still on the ground, and though his cheek was bright red, he didn't do anything about it.

"What are you talking about Iori," Jou asked quickly, scanning the fallen boy with a speculative eye.

"Why did you stop?" Valkyrimon asked, flying back towards us. I felt safer now. If Fanglongmon was trying to trick us, at least we had protection.

"Oh," Valkryimon said, standing between me and Iori.

"He's never been inside my mind," Iori said. "Not unless he sounds like a girl…and I've seen him. I know he doesn't."

"You've seen him?" I asked in a small voice.

"Oh yeah," he said. His eyes were full of fear. "He's huge. And we've got no hope of beating him divided like this. He knows it too."

"He's never spoke to you?" I said skeptically.

"I doubt that," Jou said. "He wouldn't have accepted you as his soldier if he hadn't."

"Kurayami accepted me," he said. "Fanglongmon didn't say anything… no he did. He told us about ourselves…just to prove he's all knowing. But he didn't say anything about me…just my grandpa…"

"You don't think he has him too do you?" I asked horrified.

"He can't have him," Iori said firmly. "He's already got all the leverage he would've needed for me. He's got Natsuni."

"And Noriko," I pointed out.

"Yeah, and her," he said. "Can I stand up now? Or are you going to hit me again?"

"You must know where she is then," Jou said.

"No idea," Iori admitted. "Kurayami wouldn't let me see them."

"Then are you really going to be any help at all?" Jou asked—a tad rudely, but since he didn't seem to believe little Iori was a good guy, I kind of understood.

"Well, I've got the only key to their cell," Iori said pulling two keys out of his pocket, and holding one up to us. "It's the only way to save them."

"I believe him," Valkryimon said.

"Then I do too," I said. Iori looked so relieved that he had to be telling the truth. What was I thinking? Iori always tells the truth!

"You're in," Jou said, holding his hand out to help Iori to his feet.

"Valkyrimon, go ahead of us, see if you can find anything," I told my partner. "Iori, try and remember passageways or something that Kurayami wouldn't let you go down."

"That would be pretty much all of them," Iori said with a sheepish grin. "I don't think Fanglongmon trusts me."

"Like he's a good judge of character," Jou scoffed.

With that, we started rushing down the hallway again. Iori was in the lead. Jou didn't trust him enough, so he took my hand and made sure he was between the two of us.

It was five minutes before Valkyrimon made an announcement. "I found some cages!"

I was so excited, that I forgot that we were supposed to be weary of Iori, and ran ahead of him. "Did you find her yet?"

"No," Valkyrimon said. "But only one cage has a guard. It's down near the end. I think that has a good probability of being them…no?"

"Yeah. How big is the guard? Is it a mega? You could take that no problem," I said in a rush of excitement.

"It's a Goblimon…a rookie," Valkryimon said. "I think it's just there to keep them in line. He won't be any trouble."

"Oh good," Iori said. "I was hoping it wouldn't be too difficult."

"Not too difficult?" Jou asked incredulously. "Do you know how hard it was for us to get here? I had to fight off Dragomon before I could come and take on my friends!"

"I just had to pretend to join the dark side and lose all the trust that any of my friends had in me…" Iori commented. "And I lost my digimon to Fanglongmon. I think we're on even ground."

"You didn't have to do it your way," I commented.

"I did," he said. "It was the easiest way to find this location. I needed to know where they were. I was told they were 'safe', but I can't be too sure," he said.

"Then take us to them, Valkyrimon," I said, allowing my digimon to lead us to the only cage with a guard. I saw the guard long before anything else. Nothing definitive. Just a hulking outline. It didn't look like a weak little rookie to me, but I'd have to trust Valkyrimon's opinion. He was, after all, a digimon, and knew more about these things.

"Someone is coming," a tenor voice said.

"Is it her?"

"Natsuni," Iori murmured. "That's Natsuni."

"We found them," I said in awe. "We found them!"

"Aha!" Jou exclaimed. "Momoe, it's me!"

"Jou?"

I was finally able to relax. I heard my sister's voice. Everything was going to be okay.

"Yes," he said. His lips were quivering, and he couldn't stand still. I pushed him forwards, and he was off running towards her.

"Oh Jou, you're here!" she cried.

"Let's go, Iori," I said, giving him the little push he needed too. He grabbed my hand and pulled me with him.

"Mr Kido!" Natsuni exclaimed as we got to the bars. "I knew you would come. I kept telling her you would. I'm so glad you're here."

"Hi Natsuni," I said with a soft smile, letting Momoe and Jou try and hug each other through the bars, while Iori struggled with the key.

"Miss Inoue," she said happily. I could never get used to her calling me that. It seemed so formal and strange, when I considered us to be friends. "I'm happy to see you as well."

But her eyes were on Iori more often then not.

"Iori!" Noriko shouted. "You came. They have Impmon Iori. What am I going to do?"

"We'll have to get him after we finish this fight," I said quickly, watching him cringe.

"Miyako!" Momoe said through tears, as she tackled me. Iori had _just_ opened the door the moment before. She really _was_ pregnant. It was a strange look on her. I couldn't believe she hadn't told me there was going to be a baby. It sure made hugging her seem foreign.

"Momoe," I whimpered. "I'm so glad you're safe."

"I'm glad _you're_ safe. I'm sure I've been safer than you," she said, placing a hand on her stomach. "Goblimon has been taking good care of us."

"You're guard?" Jou asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"Oh yes," she said sending the green digimon a soft smile. "He's been very kind."

Jou pulled Momoe along with him to thank the digimon, and I turned to see if Noriko was okay. She seemed absolutely distraught. What I saw however, wasn't a sad girl.

Natsuni had flung her arms around Iori, and he—most likely not expecting what came next—instinctively wrapped his arms around her. Then, she kissed him. Right on the mouth. I was shocked to say the least.

It was only a few seconds before she pulled away, but I was sure Iori was frozen in shock.

"End scene," she said softly, as she extracted herself from him. Her eyes were just as wide as his. "Oh dear…"

"What…was…that….?" Iori asked confused.

"I…don't know…" she said, wincing. "I don't think I meant to do that."

"I hope not," he said.

"Is she that bad of a kisser?" Noriko asked with a snort.

"Oh," Momoe said. "You let your coping mechanism get the best of you."

"What?" Iori asked. He looked positively horrified. It was the most awkward moment I've ever been a part of.

"She's been analyzing this as if it were a movie," Noriko said with another laugh. "She's gone crazy."

"Right…well…I'll see you later," Iori said, turning away from us abruptly. "I've got someone else I need to set free…"

"Who?" I asked.

"It doesn't concern you," he said stiffly, before stalking off into the dark corridor.

"Oh my god," Natsuni said. "What have I done?"

"Made my chances with him better," Noriko said snidely.

"Shut up," I said. "I'm supposed to be enjoying a happy reunion. And I don't want to hear any bickering. Valkyrimon, we're heading back to the battle."

"Right," he said, having decided to stand on the edge of the reunion, afraid of scaring the girls.

"I'm only leaving if Goblimon comes with us," Natsuni announced.

"I'm leaving anyway," Noriko said, coming up to stand beside me.

"I'm only leaving if Natsuni goes," Momoe said.

"So Goblimon is coming then," Jou said grabbing the digimon's arm. "Let's go."

Momoe laughed as Goblimon was dragged down the hallway, and Natsuni let her fear and worry over her Iori problem melt away as she ran up and grabbed Goblimon's hand.

They were finally free.

_**Iori:**_

She kissed me.

Natsuni kissed me.

What the hell was she thinking? We were best friends. Best friends don't do anything like that. That's what separates best friends from girlfriends. I still felt weird from the kiss as I walked down another dark, seemingly endless, corridor.

I'd never kissed anyone before.

Now I knew why. It was so awkward. And it destroyed normality. And it was really wet. That was the worst part.

Well, no. The worst part was that I didn't expect it at all.

It was my first kiss. So I didn't ever want to be kissed, and dismissed anything and everything that could possibly relate to love on any level… It was still my first kiss. My long talks with Hikari over the years told me that that was a big deal.

At least it wasn't Noriko.

But why would she do it? Because she'd been equating the whole event as scenes from a movie? She would've kissed anyone if it ended her scene… That bothered me too. Because that meant she didn't mean it to be me. And though I didn't _want_ her to kiss me—and she totally knew that because I told her the day after we met that I'd sworn off of love and anything that goes with it—some part of me kind of wished that she'd wanted to kiss _me._

Maybe it was just Hikari talking. _'You're first kiss is special, and it's supposed to be magical. I can't wait to find the right guy to give mine too, you know? It's so innocent and sweet and…it'd be worth it Iori. When you find the right girl, you won't worry about this aversion anymore. You'll want to kiss her just as much as she wants to kiss you.'_

Well, I supposed that was it then. I did want to kiss her as much as she wanted to kiss me: not at all. I just _happened_ to be there.

I didn't know if our friendship could recover from something like this. I could still feel her. Her arms wrapped firmly—yet delicately—around my neck, pulling herself off of the ground so she could reach better. The feel of her warm, soft body wrapped in my own arms as I foolishly thought she was just hugging me. The feel of her lips pressing against my own, so soft and wet, and…weird. I didn't know what to think of it.

I hated it immediately of course. That stupid kiss ruined my friendship. How was I supposed to look her in the eye during one of my rants about public displays of affection? I couldn't, because I'd always flash back to this moment, when she gave me a big ole kiss right in front of my other friends.

And Miyako! She was going to tell everybody. She was the type of person that would do that.

How was I going to look any of them in the eye?

I pushed my hands into my pockets, and forced these thoughts to leave my mind. If I didn't keep up whatever defence I had against him, Fanglongmon might find a way to get in, and he'd use this against me somehow.

I _knew_ kissing was bad news. I just knew it!

"_Iori!_"

I stopped in my tracks. It was her. The woman from my dreams. I was close…but where was she?

"To your left, sweet boy," she said. I looked to my left and was shocked. How had I missed her? She was glowing brightly, a beacon of hope to me in this endless darkness the world had been plagued with. "You came."

"You asked me to," I told her.

"But you did not _have_ to come," she said with a sweet smile. She had wings, and they were the only part of her—aside from her luminescent aura—that told me she wasn't human. Her hair fell in large, soft curls, and neared her elbows. Her skin was radiant, and all of my troubles seemed to melt away the moment my eyes met hers.

"I couldn't leave you here," I said without hesitation. There was something about her, something that compelled me to tell her every thought with brutal honesty. She wouldn't judge me for anything. I knew she wouldn't.

"Thank you," she said. She reminded me of the good witch from that movie Natsuni made me watch as a bonus assignment for the English class she signed me up for. The Wizard of Oz maybe? I'm not sure. But she was wearing a gown, a light green gown that was reminiscent of that witch's, and she had the same bubbly and _good_ feel to her. "Iori, your troubles are not as bad as they seem."

"I just lost my best friend," I told her.

"No," she corrected. "You assume you did. Assuming is not something I recommend."

"Because it makes an… yeah, I get it," I said, blushing at the prospect of nearly swearing in front of this fairy princess. "Mom tells me the same thing."

"She is a smart woman," she said happily. "Just give it time. Time can heal almost all wounds, and this is but a little scrape."

"You sure?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh yes," she said. "I do know quite a lot. And I have a feeling this is just one of those things."

"Okay," I said with a sigh. Maybe Natsuni would apologize, and I would apologize for running off—because it was rather rude of me—and then we'd pretend it never happened. Natsuni didn't like me, and I didn't like her—_that_ way—so things could back to normal. I didn't need to panic, I wasn't Miyako. I could handle this.

"Of course you can," she said, startling me. Maybe I said it aloud…?

"No," she said. "I can hear your thoughts."

_Like Fanglongmon?_ I thought in horror.

"Never," she said with a harshness I didn't expect. "I am protecting you from him. I need to you protect the light, Iori. You promised you would."

"And I will," I said. "Just as soon as I get you out of here."

"That _would_ be lovely," she said, thinking it over.

Without allowing her to change her mind, I pulled a key out of my pocket, and inserted it into the keyhole. But when I went to open the door, it revealed, not the inside of her cage, but a new world, a familiar world. In a panic, I slammed the door shut and locked it again.

"Yes," she said. "That is the World of Dreams. It is imperative that you do not let it merge with this world compiled already of three. Fanglongmon and Dragomon would surely win if they could have everything they wished to have."

"Right," I said, exchanging the key for the key Ken had thrown at me. Looking at them, I didn't understand how I mixed them up. One was a brilliant gold, and the other a lifeless black. "I'll get you out now."

"Yes," she said softly. "I am needed elsewhere. I must leave this place. You're right."

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She made it seem like it was a hard decision. Be free or be held captive. There really isn't that much of a debate there.

Despite her strangeness, I opened the door, with the _right_ key this time. She didn't move from her spot. Instead she smiled even bigger than before, increasing the glowing that came off of her skin.

"Your friends need you now," she said. "Go to them, I will be alright."

"Are you sure?" I asked. I turned to look down the dark hallway. I couldn't tell what might be lurking down there. Yeah, she was powerful enough to stop Fanglongmon from getting into my mind, but that didn't mean she was going to be able to walk right out of this place. She'd been caught once after all.

_I am sure._ Her voice resonated in my mind.

When I looked back into the cage, she was gone. It was an empty room without light of any kind. I couldn't hold back a shiver. She had other powers after all.

I ran away from the cage without wasting another second. There was nothing holding me there now.

It was only when I had entered the long corridor I recognized as the hall Natsuni had been held, that I realized I'd seen another dream image in reality. There were just two left…and they were the scariest of the lot. I _had_ to stop them.

I couldn't let Hikari die.

_**Chikara:**_

It didn't seem like it would end. I was too old for the excitement. Yuck and Huh were no closer to finding Hikari Yagami or their fellow Numemon, and I was no closer to going home for a family dinner with my daughter-in-law and my two grandsons. I really could have used a prune juice right about then.

"Are they close, yuck?" Yuck asked for the hundredth time at least.

"No," I said with forced patience. "Not that I'm aware of."

"That's too bad, huh," Huh replied.

"It is," I said…again. There was only so much repetition a man my age could handle. My memory wasn't going just yet. I didn't need reminders of what happened a few minutes ago.

"I wish we were though, yuck."

"I know you do," I sighed. "Are you hungry?"

I added it in just for the sake of variety. Well…and it was the convenience store we'd just passed.

"Oh yuck, yes!" Yuck exclaimed.

"Oh boy, huh, I'm starved," Huh said.

I grimaced as the two digimon tackled me in gratitude.

"Get off that old man you scoundrels!"

I was a tad offended, that this person didn't think I could handle two tiny Numemon, but mostly, I was surprised by the voice's defensiveness. I was the only person I'd come across that didn't shy away from the Numemon in either fear or disgust.

"What for, huh?"

"Yeah, yuck, we's not hurtin' him."

"I've got eyes, I can see," the voice said. Once Yuck had moved away from my face, I was able to see that this was no human. It was a digimon. A digimon that wore a _men_ over his face, but had two horns protruding from the top of it. He wore a set of kendo armor in red and blue, with silver sleeves that were much too long for him, while clutching at a familiar stick. His reptilian tail and feet however, gave him away.

"Kotemon, yuck!" Yuck shouted.

"Huh, I didn't know he could speak," Huh said.

"What do you mean," I asked. "He spoke just now."

"He's a quiet digimon, huh," Huh explained. "He's always quiet. He doesn't, huh, talk to anyone."

"I can talk. Just because the other Kotemon don't doesn't mean I can't if I want to…and I do want to," Kotemon said. "And you were attacking that old man. He's my old man. Go get your own."

"You wanted them to stop fighting me, so _you_ could fight me?" I asked, not liking where this was going. I didn't think my old joints could take another battle today.

"No," Kotemon said. "You're mine. You're a master at kendo. I can tell. I'm training to be a master. You could be my partner, and train me to be a master!"

"I already have a student," I said as diplomatically as I could.

"Yeah, you're grandson," Kotemon said. "But he's too old now. You need me instead."

"Stop trying to take our old man, yuck!"

"Why don't you stop fighting over this 'old man'?" I suggested.

"No!" they shouted at once. It was the first time I'd heard either Yuck or Huh not say "Yuck" or "Huh" in a sentence. It was rather refreshing.

"You're _my_ partner," Kotemon insisted. "I have the digivice and everything, see?"

He reached into his armour and pulled out a small grey…something or other. I couldn't keep up with electronics. Radio, telephone and television, that's as much as I could handle.

"I've been watching you," he continued. "You're strong enough, and brave enough, and you're just right. You _have_ to pick me and not them. Please?"

He sounded so desperately hopeful that I almost agreed to whatever it was he was trying to rope me in to. But I didn't.

"I'm helping Yuck and Huh here find their family," I said. "I'm not trying to be their partner. I don't know what you're talking about."

"If I take you to the Numemon will you be my partner?" Kotemon tried.

"If you take me to the Numemon and tell me what it is you want from me, then perhaps," I told him.

"Oh you won't regret it, I promise," Kotemon said happily. "Iori Hida is famous you know, they all are. He has a partner. Do you know Armadillomon?"

"I thought his name was Upamon," I said. It seemed these digimon were similar to electronics: confusing and in too large of a variety.

"He's that too," Kotemon said. "I'll help keep you safe and you help me train to be stronger. It's awesome. And I've been waiting to see you for a long time. You're really old, see? I've been waiting for forever almost."

"I don't take well to insults," I informed him.

"I'm just telling the truth," he told me wryly. I allowed him to win that round. Honesty is always the best policy. I've taught Iori that and I would not ignore those lessons now.

"The Numemon," I reminded him.

"Oh, you're really close now," he told me. "They're right around the corner trying to get into the sewers. They can't lift up the cover thing, you see?"

"The manhole cover," I supplied.

"Yeah, that," he said. I sighed. I'd almost found them on my own, and now I'd agreed to be the partner of some digimon I'd just met. The only thing in my favour was that this digimon seemed to appreciate kendo just as much as I did.

"Then let us reunite these lost travellers with their family," I told him with a sigh, holding my hand out to him. He passed me the grey electronic device, and I slipped it in my pocket. Then he grabbed my hand, so I didn't "run away" from him.

I'd have to have Iori explain what I'd gotten myself into…

_**Isao:**_

"We're searching for my sister!" Chiziru sang.

"And my brother!" Shin continued.

"And we're having fun!" Mantarou sang with them.

"But really I'd rather be at home doing my nails and calling my best friend—that would be my DRUTHER!" She belted out the last note and I winced.

The three of them together were literally the most awful and annoying creatures alive—even more so than my three boys in the most heated of arguments.

"Why don't you have a go?" Mantarou asked me from right behind me.

"Perhaps you should put your seat belt on." I suggested.

"What for?" He asked, "The only thing that could possibly happen is we'll die."

"And dying is just another great adventure, right guys?" Shin asked.

"Right on!" Chiziru laughed patting Shin on his shoulder. Shin grinned and reached down to unbuckle his seat belt but I quickly stopped him, placing my hand on his, shaking my head. If my son became anything like either of these two children I would disown him right there and then. There was no way I could let him be like that.

He looked a little put out as he turned to look out the window. I returned my hands to the wheels and continued driving. I looked to the sky and saw some sort of flying creature above me, and sighed. This was getting old. I could only hope the random monster attacks would end soon. I needed to get back to work in a couple days—I didn't want to miss a pay check for anything as trivial as the apocalypse.

"Is that Shuu?" Shin asked me glancing out the window. I looked over quickly and saw a group of people and monsters standing outside the University, and one of them was clearly my eldest son, Shuu.

Without a single word I turned the wheel and drove down toward the group of people in the University parking lot.

I stopped the car abruptly in front of them, a little nervous with the monsters around and motioned for Shin to roll down his window.

"D-dad?" I heard Shuu ask as he stepped away from the others. There was a very eccentric looking girl who I could only hope had no romantic ties with my son, and Haruhiko Takenouchi, the professor. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for my sons." I told him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," He told me, "There's nothing to be scared of—digimon are the good guys."

"Digimon?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows. "Sounds like some children's game."

"Dad—" He tried.

"Where is Jou?" I asked him.

"I don't know—I'm sure he's fine—he knows what he's doing out there." Shuu said, "Just let him do his thing. Go with the flow dad."

"Yeah buddy!" Mantarou cut in, opening the car door and hopping out. "I'm going with these guys—they're a lot more fun."

"How can you be sure?" Chiziru asked.

"Just the way they act." Mantaru smiled, slamming the door to the truck causing me to wince. And soon there was another slam. In winced again as Chiziru followed her brother.

Shin tried to follow but I stopped him before turning to Shuu, "Get in."

"No, I can't," He said simply, "I have things to get done."

"You're disobeying me?" I asked him.

"Dad," He said, "I'm a fully grown adult, I have a mind of my own."

I turned away from him and hit the gas. I was already down one son apparently, and Shin was so easily influenced, and Jou was apparently involved with these monsters and dating a... freak. I was losing children quickly...

_**Kurayami:**_

As I stepped into the fighting chamber from where I had gone with Gennai I found myself staring around with a smile on my face. I knew I didn't want to smile—I was scared, but I couldn't stop the smile that was creeping upon my face.

The smile was Fanglongmon—he was happy. Everything was going according to his plans... and that wasn't a good sign. Or maybe it was. I honestly couldn't tell anymore—up and down seemed the same to me now... I could hardly remember which thoughts were mine and which were his. All I knew was that fighting him was pointless and no matter how hard I tried, he would always push harder than I, and always beat me... no matter what.

I found that I was scanning the battle quickly now, looking over everyone, all the separate battles as the digimon roared and ripped at each other and their partners cheered and screamed from the sidelines. There seemed to be some missing—but none from Fanglongmon's team and so it didn't bother me in the slightest, as I wasn't looking for them...

Just Michael.

And when I found him, I smiled.

I set off at a run, straight through a rather savage battle between one Ankylomon and Cherubimon and MegaGargomon. I was pleased to see that, somehow, Ankylomon was winning. I didn't stop though, slipping underneath the dinosaur's large legs and running on, pursuing my way across the battlefield. For some reason my body—or my mind... or Fanglongmon I supposed—wouldn't let fear rise. I knew that running in between mindless drones as they fought was not a good idea...

I stopped my running, which was hard to do with the big thick cloak that was over my shoulder, when I came up to Michael who was sitting on the ground, against the wall staring off toward the remaining fighters on the other team, though where the rest had gone, I didn't know.

"Michael." I told him simply, drawing his attention quickly. "I need your assistance."

"What?" He asked, almost excitedly. He kept his eyes on the others. I looked over my shoulder and saw Takenouchi, who was biting her nails nervously, and the male Yagami, who was cheering on his digimon as it fought against Metalgarurumon, standing side by side, and Izumi not far off, screaming at the top of his lungs to his digimon as it declared war against the Grankuwagamon at the other end of the chamber. But I knew Michael was staring at the other girl, the one standing by herself. I didn't know her well, I had just heard Michael speak her name quietly a few times—Tatum.

"I need your help." I said simpler, just in case he hadn't understood.

"Really?"

I stared at him without answering as he pulled himself to his feet. I noticed that Fanglongmon was particularly weak in my mind at the moment but I knew it was because he had so many beings under his control.

"What for?" He asked, finally tearing his eyes away from Tatum.

"I need your digimon." I told him with a smile. His face almost fell when he realized that it wasn't him that I needed. "And you." I added quickly. He smiled and nodded.

"We'd better go get him then!" He smiled, taking off and running toward Seadramon who was fighting three of the opponent's digimon. Phoenixmon, Plesiomon, and Airdramon. He wasn't winning though... he was clearly showing signs of being defeated—we needed to get him out of there quickly... I still needed him—no. Not me... he did. Fanglongmon needed him.

I followed Michael's lead toward the digimon in question. We stopped near Yagami and Takenouchi, both of us making sure to avoid Tatum as we stared up at Seadramon.

"Seadramon!" Michael yelled out, "Seadramon I need you to come with me!"

"What?" Yagami asked, drawing his attention toward the two of us, and stepping angrily toward us. "What are you doing? Leaving the battle?"

"Taichi!" Takenouchi said, shaking her head and grabbing her friends arm. "That's a good thing!"

"No, it's not." He shook his head as Michael continued calling for Seadramon who tried to escape but was stopped by Plesiomon. "We need to take them all down! We need to win this—we can't let any of them escape!"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Takenouchi hissed to him. I was trying not to eavesdrop—it was rude and I didn't care about their conversation, but they were loud and there was nothing else to pay attention to besides Michael failing at getting his digimon out of the battle. "You need to stop! These are our friends! They're just under Fanglongmon's influence—we need to convince them to stop fighting—we need to stop everything—all of this!"

"You don't want to fight?" Yagami asked.

"No." Takenouchi said flatly. "Phoenixmon! Let Seadramon go! Michael doesn't want him to fight anymore!"

Phoenixmon, Plesiomon and Airdramon parted ways and Seadramon slithered slowly across the dark concrete floor toward us, laying in front of us.

"Thanks." Michael said to Takenouchi as he lifted himself onto the back of the beast. She smiled to Michael as he reached down to me. I reached up and took his hand allowing me to pull me up onto his digimon.

"Yes, thank you." I said smugly. "But you've chosen the wrong path. I think your friend here would have been a better planner."

As the two of them looked to each other in confusion Michael directed Seadramon away from them as he stared behind us toward Tatum. I felt almost bad for him, leaving behind the one he loved, but any emotions that I hoped for—love, happiness, anything really... I couldn't get them. They weren't allowed in.

Suddenly Fanglongmon seemed to gather up all of my thoughts and tighten them, and only one thing was important.

"Go down that tunnel..." I directed.

_**Ken:**_

Everything was going to plan. It was wonderful. The destruction, the anger, the desperation as those fools tried to fight against the master's power. Who did they think they were? They were nothing. Just stepping stones to Fanglongmon's triumph.

The twin mega digimon, Cherubimon and MegaGargomon, were using all of their might to hold off Ankylomon. His partner had vanished at some point during the battle. But it was better this way. He wasn't here to try and keep Ankylomon from answering Fanglongmon's orders. That alone was a success, as the mere champion was staving off Kennedy's two mega digimon with only a small bit of trouble.

Kurayami had succeeded as well; she'd collected the sea dragon, and was working towards the next step in Fanglongmon's plan. I smirked. This would be worth it, to see the fear and loathing on their faces, to hear the master's praise. Oh yes. It would be more than worth it. She led Seadramon and his partner down to the laboratory where Daisuke was waiting eagerly—if it were me, I would be—for their arrival.

The Plesiomon and Phoenixmon had moved to their next attempted battle, assisting WarGreymon, when Seadramon was gone. Takenouchi seemed to gain a sort of…pleasure…from fighting against MetalGarurumon. Yamato, however, seemed to be upset by this. Didn't he know that this was the master's plan? He knew going into this battle he would be fighting against our old friends. I scoffed. _Friends_. Who needed them? I didn't. I needed only my master. Takenouchi and Yagami were shouting nothing but insults his way. He'd do well to learn such an opinion.

Young Jefferson was at a loss. She was conferring with her digimon. She hadn't needed to. She was weak. The master hadn't even bothered to transfer her allegiances. Her digimon however, he had potential. And he did not speak. It would be refreshing. There would be no complaints or whining. Yes. When we won—and we would—I'd make the suggestion to the master. DemiVeemon was with her too. Fanglongmon had failed to win him over. How such a miniscule digimon hoped to compete with the mighty Fanglongmon escaped me. Without him, Daisuke served no purpose. If he was not taken, Daisuke would be dismissed.

One less person standing between me and my master.

My own digimon was fighting against HerculesKabuterimon. He did not listen to my instructions any longer. This was a fight as old as the Digital World itself. There would be nothing I could do to stop it. Fanglongmon _could_, but as he had not, it must have pleased him.

I ignored the pains in my shoulders and knees, given to me when Izumi had tackled me to the ground. I could not see how he was ashamed of _me._ If anything, _I_ should be ashamed of _him_. He failed to heed Fanglongmon's warnings, his ideals. Izumi clung to the idea that Fanglongmon was evil. Could he not see how brilliant he was, how he was working towards a better future for all of everybody, regardless of which world they came from? He was fixing the humans' mistakes. The worlds did not need to be separated as they'd once thought. Digimon were the superior race, they did not deserve the treatment they got. The humans locked them up in a separate world. Now though, they could get their revenge.

Fanglongmon would rule over the humans. Just as Fanglongmon ruled over the digimon. He was the perfect master. I would follow him anywhere. I was in his ranks, one of the highest human warriors. I was in a place of honour. Even Daemon could not touch me where I was.

It was then, as I monitored the enemy, that the twin megas lost power, falling to the ground, and landing reverted into their rookie forms. Lopmon and Terriermon looked around with wide eyes and I let a twisting smile cross my face. Kennedy was no longer a problem. Excellent.

"What happened?" Izumi asked Jefferson.

"Maybe something got Willis," she said with a barely concealed amount of fear.

More than excellent. They knew they were going to lose.

"He was with Hikari," Yagami shouted. "I have to find her."

"Taichi, you can't leave yet," Takenouchi told him. "We need you here."

"My sister needs me," he informed her.

"Takeru and Jou and Miyako and Mimi are all there too," she said. "Plesiomon is fine. Jou is fine. She'll be fine."

"Iori went after them," Izumi informed them. "Do you think he did it?"

"No," I said. "He is weak. He has a hidden agenda. Fanglongmon would never let him have such a prestigious honour. Perhaps Piedmon, or LadyDevimon?"

"Damn it, Ken, snap out of it!" Yagami yelled at me. "We need you to help us, not betray us."

"Leave him alone," Yamato snapped at him. "You don't know how he feels. Fanglongmon is powerful."

"You're stupid, you know that?" Yagami told him.

"At least I'm not yelling at someone that clearly has no say in his own mind," he said.

"I have control," I hissed at him.

"No you don't, you're a pawn," he told me sympathetically.

"And you are here for a hidden agenda as well," I deduced. He was no longer one of us. I snarled at him, but realized that even if he were not a part of Fanglongmon's master plan, MetalGarurumon was.

"We don't have time for this," Yagami said. "My sister, remember!"

"Stop fighting," Takenouchi screamed. "Phoenixmon, can you fix this?"

"Yes," the phoenix said. "Without any casualties."

"Then do that," she said. "We don't have time for this anymore."

"Of course."

The digimon flew up towards the ceiling in the large, cavernous room, and spread its wings wide, all four of them.

"Star-Light Explosion!" he shouted, releasing a storm of golden grains. The grains rained down on us, and I watched in horror as first Ankylomon was hit, halting his fighting immediately, and reverting to Armadillomon in a sign of surrender. MetalGarurumon was next, giving up his fight as well. Ishida was hit, and then GranKuwagamon. I was lucky with him, he continued to fight against HerculesKabuterimon showing no signs of stopping.

And then the grains hit my skin. They were absorbed quickly. And then I was on my knees, screaming as loud as I could. The feeling was excruciating. It was worse than any migraine I'd ever had in my entire life. My mind was at war. One side wanted to stay, to keep its hooks deep in my consciousness, refusing to relinquish control, while the other was trying to eradicate it. Tears fell from my eyes as I continued to scream, but I could do nothing to stop it.

And then I realized just what I'd been doing. I'd turned my back on my friends, failed to listen to Wormmon's counsel, and dismissed Miyako, my sweet Miyako. What had I done?

The second side won at that point, leaving my mind, and taking the other side with it. My mind was my own again. It was free, a wonderful feeling.

But the realizations were not happy ones, and I was unable to revel in the freedom.

"What just happened?" Taichi asked.

"We're free," I said monotonously. "I—I—what did I do?"

"You're fine," Sora said soothingly. "You will be anyway. We have to find Hikari and Miyako and the others now. Are you ready?"

"I'll stay here," I said. Miyako wouldn't want to see me. Fanglongmon could find me again too. I might not be strong enough to keep him away. "I'm not safe."

"You're free now though," Yamato pointed out.

"I'm still staying," I said, looking up at GranKuwagamon.

"Then I'll stay with you," he said.

"Me as well," Koushiro said looking at me skeptically, and then to his digimon. Tatum agreed, as the two of them were discussing the history of the two "Kings" of the insect digimon.

"Hurry though," I said. "Their plan…it's not pleasant. Save them if you can, save Seadramon?"

"We'll try," Taichi said, though it seemed to confuse him. Sora nodded solemnly. Taichi and Sora—and WarGreymon and Phoenixmon—left quickly down the hall that the others had gone down, and all I could do was recount the mistakes I'd made, the mistakes I'd let Fanglongmon make for me.

_**Michael:**_

I was curious to see where Kurayami was taking me, but I think she was overestimating my abilities. Either that or my connections with Fanglongmon. I was pretty sure he wasn't in my mind. He had been—but only when I saw Tatum at first—he had taken over because of my jealousy... or whatever emotion it had been. All I knew was that Tatum and I were hitting another rough patch—and it was by far the worst one... Fanglongmon was not helping here in the slightest.

But Seadramon was strong, and he was connected to Fanglongmon pretty directly as far as I could tell, and so I knew we'd be of some use to them.

Of course they were the wrong people to be helping, but even so, at least I was helping someone. The only friends I had made in this group so far were Yamato and Koushiro... Koushiro had lost his marbles and Yamato was on this team—Mimi and Willis had both gone missing at some point and so I literally had nothing else and no one to fight for... except Tatum. I just... couldn't be sure what the best choice was... what should I have done? What was going on in my brain...? I couldn't even tell that let alone Tatum's or anyone else's.

And so I was following Kurayami's instructions and leading Seadramon down a tunnel... the pathway to the right. I wasn't sure where it would lead to, but I was all for a little adventure, and it couldn't hurt... or at least... I didn't think it could.

"Where to now?" I asked her, excited.

"Still straight." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Right." I nodded, continuing down the dark tunnel. It was a little unnerving, the darkness was. It reminded me of Betamon's eyes lately though. I remembered them being much less black. And I knew it was a sign of evil the moment I saw him! Of course I was lying again, but how was I to know he wasn't just wearing coloured contacts?

The point was, he looked scary when I stared at him long enough it was like the real Betamon was gone. Missing from his brain, and I had thought that it wasn't possible, but with Fanglongmon brought into the picture I knew it was a possibility. And with the dark ocean too... I had a feeling that could have been a part of it—a big part of it actually. He'd told me how much fun he'd had patrolling the dark waters... how the others had told him not to go, but he'd insisted and remained in the waters, searching for Dragomon... it made me wonder if perhaps he did find what he was looking for... and if Dragomon and him had struck some kind of deal...

I shook my head quickly, not wanting to think about that as Kurayami made a strange noise.

"We're almost there." She said pointing ahead to the big open gateway at the end of the tunnel where lights were flickering eerily in a chamber at the end. I shivered suddenly, and tried to pretend I had just been adjusting my seating but I knew Kurayami could sense my fear.

"What are we doing way down here?" I asked as Seadramon entered the chamber. The first thing I noticed was a large tube in the center of the room with wires and machinery piecing off of it. Then I noticed Daisuke. The room was solid concrete and almost perfectly round—even the floor was slightly rounded. The tube in the center of the room took up a great deal of space though—it looked like it could fit a whole family of elephants...

Just how big was Fanglongmon's home...?

"You're here now?" Daisuke asked.

"No," Kurayami said sarcastically, sliding off of Seadramon and motioning for me to do the same. I followed her slowly. This was it—this was my chance to help the battle—to turn the tides, or however that saying went. Unless that wasn't the right saying—I didn't have time to think about that.

Kurayami motioned for Seadramon to follow her and so he did. I slowly moved toward Daisuke to watch. He smiled at me comfortingly, which set me on edge—why did I need comfort?

"This should be fun." I said, trying to start a conversation.

Daisuke's face looked of pure confusion before he shrugged his shoulders, "Sure... I guess, yeah." He said slowly. I looked toward Seadramon as he slithered his way into the tube in the center of the room.

"So what are you doing?" I asked Kurayami as she shut some glass door on the transparent chamber, or tube, in the middle of the room.

"I'm implanting your digimon with the X-Virus." She said as she reached toward a large lever. "No I'm not." She said suddenly taking a step back and looking toward me, "I can't—someone help me! Daisuke!" She clamped her eyes shut and tried to stop herself but she gasped suddenly and a dark pulse swept through the room before she slowly turned toward the lever and pulled it down quickly.

I turned to Seadramon in shock. Was that a bad thing? The X-Virus? What would that do to him? I stared up at him as he sat in the chamber as Daisuke ran toward Kurayami. I didn't see what was happening—I didn't care. Seadramon was in possible danger... suddenly a strange green fluid began pouring from the top of the tube and began filling it up.

"What's happening?" I asked, but no one answered me. The tube was slowly filling up. Seadramon was saying nothing though, and he wasn't moving much either. He was staring down at the fluid as it poured in around him, but it didn't seem to be hurting him so I thought it would be okay...

Soon the entire tank was filled with the thick green substance and if Seadramon couldn't breathe under water I would have been panicking.

And then I was.

From the bottom of the tank a strange metallic crane like arm emerged with a long thick needle attached to the end.

"What are you doing to him?" I asked, my voice shaking. I turned to Kurayami and Daisuke who were both staring at each other not saying a word to each other.

I looked back up to Seadramon who was now staring at me—his eyes his normal colour... he was normal—this wasn't safe—I didn't like it.

Suddenly the needle jabbed itself into him and he let out a loud, ear shattering roar. I lurched toward the lever and pulled up on it, but nothing happened. I looked up to Seadramon as the fluid from the needle injected itself into him. I turned back to the machine and began punching it and kicking it violently. I knew if I could break it, it would stop hurting him...

I looked back to him and saw that he was staring at me, his eyes wide and in pain as he suddenly began to glow white.

"What's going on?" Daisuke asked.

"He's digivolving." Kurayami said through tears which I hadn't noticed before. "It's a forced digivolution—it's unnatural... but strong."

I looked away from them and continued kicking the machine and pushing as many buttons as I could find.

"Michael..." Daisuke said, but I ignored him. "Michael!" he said louder forcing me to turn and look at him. "It's over..."

"What?" I asked looking to my digimon. The fluids were draining now, the needle had gone back into the ground and Seadramon looked different... I turned to Kurayami in a fit of rage and growled, "What did you do?"

"Fanglongmon needed him..." She said, her eyes closed, tears still pouring from her eyes, "He needed him to complete the set..."

"W—what set?" Daisuke asked the question I was about to as the glass around my digimon shattered. We all dove toward the ground as the glass landed around us. Slowly we all got up and looked toward Seadramon. I was biting my bottom lip in fear.

Would he recognize me? His eyes were back to black and he looked scary... in a way that I'd never seen him before... he looked crazed—almost disturbed. Slowly he looked toward me, and then to Kurayami and Daisuke.

"What set?" I pressed.

"He needed all four." Kurayami said slowly, and before I could ask any more questions to try and level out the fear, and everything else that was boiling inside me she finished her statement, "All four Dark Masters..."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Okay, so that's the mega chapter over with. It covered a lot of the stuff we needed to get written and done with, like the freeing the prisoners thing. It seems like they've been held captive for weeks, but it's still only been pretty much a day and a half… wow. In any case, the next chapter is down to a regular two part-er with Jou and Miyako taking lead. Now that Momoe is free, what will they do with themselves…find out next time!


	41. Life or Death

**Y/N: **Wow…sorry for the wait. It's been crazy over here for work and stuff. But here it is, and we're already hard at work on the next chapter. We're hoping to give you a little Thanksgiving present, as our way of saying thanks for giving us all of those reviews! (Corny, I know.) So keep your eyes peeled for that.

**U/N:** So sorry about the delay. I was gone for a week and for some reason thought that my sister saying "yeah i'll get it done" was the truth... but it wasn't. And so it's done NOW. but we have two super chapters for Saturday, because it's Thanksgiving and we like holiday things ;) sooooo it'll make up for the wait anyway as we drive toward the final chapters... and enjoy and review and stuff. I wrote Jou's part at four in the morning, because i wanted to really embrace the tired mind, this is a lie, that's just when i did it, and i'm making excuses... sooooo yeah. But i like it, i've been waiting for this chapter forever though soooo... yeah :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 41: Life or Death**

_**Jou:**_

I gripped her hand tightly. Smiling. I couldn't stop smiling. I was practically skipping with each step as I glanced over constantly to see if she was actually there or if it was some mirage. Sure it had only been a couple of days, but in all actuality it seemed like a lifetime. She'd been on a trip around the world for so long that I'd hardly spoken to her in a while... but here she was, ready for me to be there for her once more. I could have been there the whole time if she hadn't gone on that damned trip though... leaving me with just a stupid letter telling me...

No, Jou. No. Ignore the letter—she was back, everything was okay again.

I looked over to her and smiled at her as she stared down at her other hand, which was placed on top of her stomach... over top of my baby...

It felt weird thinking about the child now after all of this time, after the whole argument—after everything that had happened it was still there—still here, waiting for me, and waiting for Momoe. My entire body felt like it was floating around in some sort of field of magical rainbow bubbles and happiness as the two of us ran. I wasn't even sure if the others were still there—all that mattered was Momoe and my baby.

"We need to slow down!" Natsuni called, pulling me from my thoughts as we ran around a corner.

"We can't!" Noriko shot to her, "We have to keep running!"

"Shut up," Natsuni snapped, "We need to wait for Iori."

"Noriko is right," Miyako said, causing Natsuni's face to fall. "Iori will catch up, he knows the way back better than any of us, he'll probably beat us there."

"If you say so..." Natsuni said as she grabbed Goblimon's hand and changed her face to a look of determination. I smiled at her.

I liked Natsuni. I'd met her a few times, but I knew more about her than I probably should, what with Iori telling me everything about his life. Natsuni was a big part of that life—in fact she was most of that life. She was his best friend and I was pretty sure there were some hidden feelings of love in his mind too if only he'd get over what Noriko had done for him. And so I was happy that they had kissed, although I could tell Iori was not. But even so, there was something more to them than either of them could see, and all I could do was sit and watch as Noriko poked her head around in their business.

"So you kissed Iori?" I heard her say. It was clear that it was to be a whisper, but she had said it loud enough for us all to hear.

"No." Natsuni responded simply. "I did not."

"But I saw it!" Noriko growled, "You can't lie to me!"

"Well you're clearly just seeing things," Natsuni grinned as she ran faster, ahead of Noriko and near Valkyrimon dragging Goblimon along with her. Noriko seemed upset by this but said nothing more. She didn't seem as bad as Iori had tried to imply, though I could see where his dislike of her had come from.

"So what's going on?" Momoe piped up suddenly causing me to smile again just by the sound of her voice.

"We don't really have time to explain," Miyako answered for me with a sigh, "Well fill you in later."

"But how can I intend to help if you don't fill me in?" Momoe asked, her eyebrows raised. "Come now, explain away."

"You don't get to help." I said suddenly, "Momoe—you can't. You don't get to do anything dangerous."

"Jou—" She tried.

"No." I said flatly. "Momoe, you can't. Not right now."

"Well I at least want to know what's going on." She said, rolling her eyes.

"But—" I tried, but was cut off by Miyako taking a large intake of breathe as we ran around another bend in the prison sector.

"We weren't allowed back into the digital world you see," Miyako said rather quickly, "But then Takeru and I found this portal thing in the sky, well not the sky—the air rather, and we called Koushiro and he touched it—what an idiot, right? And Five keys shot out, each to open a door to a different world, though I believe we've learned since then that there are more worlds—or rather Koushiro had theorized as such. Anyway as far as I can tell from what I've been told, Mimi and Sora were looking for a purse because Sora's backpack _sooo_ did not go with her tennis shoes, and then they found Ladydevimon and then we found more Fallen Angel digimon and they we were all lead back to the portal where half of us went in and half of us didn't—we split up a lot, get used to it—and then we tried to round up the Fallen Angel digimon but they kidnapped you and the others and when we went to the Digital World to save you we found that the Dark Ocean had fused with that world and then—" She paused for a moment to breathe deeply and then continued, "And then we tried to find the others, but first we found Tokomon and then Minnomon, Demiveemon, and Betamon who seemed pretty evil, but he still led us to the Temple but there was a war at this temple, and then we had to help the others fight a battle we didn't even know existed, but there was Greymon, Gargomon, Wedigomon, and Tsunomon, and then Daemon showed himself again to be the ruler of the Fallen Angel digimon that we defeated—well actually, pretty sure Ladydevimon is still kicking..." Miyako trailed off for a moment.

"She is." Momoe said nodding, keeping up with all of what Miyako had said, to my surprise.

"Right," Miyako nodded, "Well anyway, the battle went well, kind of, but the Temple was kind of destroyed and then when the sun rose, Dragomon and his shadow people left, which was good. But then we went on a long walk that led nowhere, just so Kurayami could turn my boyfriend evil."

"Oh Miyako I'm sorry..." Momoe said, trying to comfort Miyako as we ran. I saw over Miyako's shoulder that Noriko wasn't keeping up as well as Momoe had been.

"It's fine, well not, but oh well..." Miyako said, "Well then she turned some others evil and then we all split up, the worlds fused as one, Sora went to talk to her dad, I found Hawkmon I killed Machinedramon—you're welcome everyone—and then we came to save you."

"Well that's one way to put it." I said, rolling my eyes. It wasn't the time to be bringing it all back up, but with her putting it all into one sentence... so much had happened. And that was with only Miyako's perspective—Mimi and I had had a run in with Meiyomon who was still missing somewhere trying to save his siblings who were apparently in mortal danger, and a very unfortunate meeting with Dragomon. What had Taichi and the others done? Or Takeru and Hikari when they'd left us? So much had happened in the past two and half days... I wonder how the rest of the world was taking it...

"What's been going on with you?" Miyako asked.

"We were in a cage." Noriko replied simply.

The simplicity of her statement caused the rest of us to burst into laughter. I felt terrible of course, laughing about the thing that had been plaguing my life for the last few days, but since it was over... I thought perhaps it was fair to laugh about it... but then again, it could have affected my baby. Did they get fed? Water perhaps? How had they survived in there?

I made a mental note to take Momoe out for supper after this was all over.

"Jou, this way!" Miyako shot to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me down a different hallway causing me to pull Momoe along with me.

"How do you remember the way back?" I asked her.

"I don't..." She said slowly, pointing over her shoulder, "But we need to run."

I looked back slowly and groaned at the sight of Ladydevimon. Her long arms were stretched out in the air as her wings flapped slowly, causing her to glide through the air, and whipping around the corner behind us. Momoe let out a mangled scream as Noriko shouted "GO AWAY!"

We all turned to look ahead of us and saw that Valkyrimon turned to face Ladydevimon as Goblimon stopped to look at his master. Natsuni stopped and tried to pull him along but he wouldn't move.

"Valkyrimon will defeat her!" Miyako grinned to herself. "We've got this!"

As we came closer to Goblimon and Natsuni I heard him growl a simple "No," to her.

Her eyes grew wide as she shook her head, "You have to come!" She said sharply, "You don't understand Goblimon! You have to come! I'm not going without you. Not now!"

"Go find your friend." He told her. "I'll distract her."

"No." Valkyrimon said, pushing him aside. "I've got this under control." Miyako was still grinning as we passed them and Natsuni finally forced Goblimon into a run with her. Momoe and I were in the lead now, nearing the intersection where we would have to choose between two options that could lead to life or death. Noriko, Natsuni and Goblimon were right behind us, while Miyako was at the back watching eagerly to see Valkyrimon fight.

"Guys!" I heard a male voice call, "This way!" We all turned to see Iori be hugged tightly. I had thought at first that it was Natsuni or Noriko, but I was surprised to see the violet hair flipping around as she ran past us all and toward him and threw her arms around him.

"Iori!" She called out, "You're back! You're safe!"

"Miyako!" He laughed, "Of course I am, you have no faith in me." He turned to me and smiled. I nodded at him and we were both fine then. We both knew each other understood the other. I knew he wasn't lying. He wasn't under Fanglongmon's control, he was really just Iori—a happy Iori who just willingly hugged Miyako back... things were really starting to look up.

"Evil Wing!" Ladydevimon's voice called out. I looked over my shoulder, ignoring Natsuni and Noriko running with Goblimon to greet Iori, to see Valkyrimon dodge the deep purple bats that shot from the Fallen Angel's wings. The bats, though they had missed our saviour, were then headed toward us.

"Get down!" I shouted quickly, grabbing Momoe and taking her to the ground quickly. I threw my arm around her and closed my eyes tightly, ignoring the sounds of screaming and explosions. My heart was pounding with fear—I could die, anyone could die—and if Ladydevimon killed anyone of my friends I would go up to her and kill her myself with the help of a digimon or not. She was not going to ruin this mood.

As the crumbling faded slightly I looked up to see that, through the clouds of smoke and the piles of debris the walls had fallen and crumbled apart creating a barricade between us all. The flickering orange lights above us went out suddenly as Momoe pulled herself to her feet.

"MIYAKO!" She screamed loudly as I turned to Ladydevimon. I was done thinking about saving people—it was time to actually act upon those thoughts. I could only hope Iori had save the others... hopefully they had not been crushed by the rocks. Valkyrimon was standing in shock, staring to where Miyako had been standing as I walked past him.

Ladydevimon was smiling triumphantly, panting, her silver hair pulled over her shoulder as she doubled over in the air. I didn't stop walking as I heard Momoe screech in a panic.

Ladydevimon looked down toward me as I balled my hands into a fist and swung it toward her. Suddenly I was being pulled the opposite way though. Valkyrimon was pulling me through the air toward Momoe.

"She's too strong." He said, "Stronger than she should be. We have to go." As he passed by Momoe he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms, flying around the corner and shooting a blast with the hand that was holding me toward the walls to slow down Ladydevimon.

Momoe was still screaming for her sister, tears in her eyes. I turned to her and took her hand quickly. "She'll be fine." I told her. "We've never lost anyone before. We can't start now. This is almost over."

She stopped screaming as she stared at me. She was trusting me... I could only hope I was right. Miyako had better have been fine.

"How do we get out of here?" Valkyrimon asked.

"Iori said it was the other way..." I pointed out. "We're going further into the prison." And it was obvious too. The lights above us were growing dimmer and dimmer as the ceilings grew taller and taller. We were going underground as far as I could tell, and unfortunately, that was not the way I wanted to be going.

"We'll just keep going." Valkyrimon said with a shrug of his shoulders, "If we keep going then I can blast our way out eventually I'm sure. And Goblimon will lead the others to safety."

"Do we trust him?" I asked.

"Yes." Momoe said with certainty as she reached with a shaky hand to take mine once more. She gripped my hand tightly as we stared at each other. I smiled at her, trying to comfort her, but she did not smile back. She shook her head and looked away, taking her hand with her. I wasn't sure what that meant at all, but in all honesty I couldn't handle sadness at the moment—I needed sleep or coffee, and Momoe was crying and I didn't know how to help.

I thought about the note in my pocket and then shook my head as Valkyrimon flew through the prison.

"This place is really creepy." Valkyrimon said, apparently not at all worried about Miyako. "And there aren't any cells."

"Isn't this supposed to be a prison?" Momoe asked, wiping her eyes of tears.

"Yes." I said, "But maybe this actually _does_ lead out of the prison?"

"That means Miyako is going the wrong way!" Momoe said suddenly, "What if she gets lost—or hurt?" Momoe was biting her bottom lip tightly, as she stared at the moving walls.

"She won't." I told her, trying once more to take her hand. She pulled it back sharply from me and looked away.

She didn't want comfort? Or perhaps just not from me... I couldn't help but think to the note this time... did she really mean what she had said? I stared slowly toward the child that was growing inside of her and felt a pang in my heart...

I couldn't dwell on that.

It wasn't worth it.

"Look ahead!" Valkyrimon said excitedly, a smile creeping upon his face. I turned to see what he was staring at, and it was a large archway. A way out?

But as we came closer it became apparent that it was just a large prison door, the bars coming into focus through the coating of grime on my glasses.

But who was kept inside the large prison cell?

Valkyrimon landed in front of the cell which was the end of the tunnel—we were trapped here...

"I'll start blasting our way out." Valkyrimon said, "I think if we can find a way out then we can get help and come back to find the others. But I don't think I can beat Ladydevimon on my own... something is wrong with her..."

I shivered suddenly and nodded, "Yeah, good job." Just thinking about what might be wrong with the digimon scared me. She was terrifying to begin with—but what had Fanglongmon done?

Valkyrimon started shooting at the walls a little way down the tunnel, creating a hole, hopefully he knew what he was doing to not create another cave in...

"So who's in here?" Momoe asked me, drawing my attention toward the cell. I shrugged my shoulders as I took my glasses off to clean them. I saw a blurry Momoe go take a peek and heard her squeak and jump back. "It's digimon! A lot of them!"

I put my glasses back on and hurried to stand next to her. I looked inside and saw, in the shadows, many digimon standing against the walls.

"That's Impmon!" Momoe shouted suddenly, "I see him! We have to rescue them!"

"Do you really think that's smart?" I asked her. "They could be against us."

"Then why are they in this cage?" She asked as she ran toward the pile of debris Valkyrimon was making and grabbed a stone. She ran back to the giant lock on the door and smiled. "If they kill us... then... well Death is just another great adventure." She winked at me and began slamming the rock into the lock.

I smiled at her as she did so. She was so smart, and creative and... wise, and pretty and—strong. The lock snapped quickly and fell to the ground. I grabbed the rusted metal of the cage door and pulled it open. It creaked loudly as it did so, but the moment it opened digimon were pouring out of the door. First was Impmon who threw his arms around Momoe and laughed at her happily. I didn't know how she knew him, but that didn't matter—all the good digimon that Elecmon had talked about... they were missing—but they were just hiding—in here. Not hiding... they were kidnapped. And I didn't even recognize some of them. I felt really triumphant for saving them all... but then I remembered... it wasn't me.

I looked to Momoe as the digimon who were piling out began to thin. None of them were saying anything, they seemed to have a collective 'thank you' air to them as they smiled and looked around at what was happening. A Drimojimon actually began to help Valkyrimon dig a hole—everything was going okay again... providing Miyako and the others were okay.

Finally the digimon stopped coming and Momoe looked inside, Impmon still by her side.

"Hello?" She called out, "Anyone left in here?" Suddenly a large yellow, fuzzy foot pushed her lightly out of the way as a Monzaemon stepped playfully into the corridor with his prison mates.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to turn and look at him as he pointed slowly toward Momoe.

"Me?" She asked, pointing to herself in confusion. The Monzaemon shook his head and lowered his arm slightly. Momoe slowly pointed down to her stomach and the Monzaemon smiled and nodded.

Momoe and I shared looks of confusion before she gasped suddenly and looked down.

"What?" I asked, "What is it?"

She looked up to me, her eyes in a panic, "My water broke."

_**Miyako:**_

Oh. God. No.

"Momoe!" I screamed. "Momoe, can you hear me! Jou! Valkryimon! Somebody answer me."

"Miyako," Iori said gently, laying a hand on my shoulder. "Screaming isn't going to help them."

"Nothing I do with help them. Not unless I move these rocks, and they're bigger than _I_ am, some of them. What am I going to do, Iori? I just got my sister back, and she could be squished under all of those rocks… She's supposed to live, Iori. She's having a baby. She and Jou are going to get married someday and they'll be a perfect, happy little family," I said while hyperventilating. "How can they do that if they're dead?"

"They are not dead," he said firmly, almost scarily. "If you listen carefully, you can hear them yelling for you. They're fine. Maybe bruised and a little shaken, but we'll get to them. We just need to find someone that can help us move this."

"It'll be fine, Miss Inoue," Natsuni agreed. "We'll just continue following this path. We'll find the others, and then we'll get them back."

"Right," I said shakily. "I can do that, I can do this."

"Lead on Iori," Noriko said, trying to grab his hand, only for him to move it at the last second. Didn't she realize that my sister was in trouble? This was so not the time to be a creepy obsessed stalker.

But lead on, Iori did. He seemed to avoid getting too close to either Noriko or Natsuni, but he was confident in the directions he gave us, leading us through the complex hallways.

"Is it much further?" Noriko whined.

"I'm more worried about finding our way back," I snapped at her. "Will we be able to find my sister, Jou and Valkyrimon again?"

"Yes," he told me, ignoring Noriko again.

"Good," I said, though it placated me little.

"Where are we even going, Taichi?" Sora asked.

Sora? Where was she? I craned my neck and stood on my toes, thankful for this new distraction. We wouldn't have to go any further, we could go back and save my sister—again—right away, and get out of this godforsaken hole in the ground.

"I don't know," Taichi answered. "It's not like I know my way around or anything."

"We should have made Ken come," she said with a sigh. And just like that I was no longer happy to hear her voice.

"He didn't want to risk turning evil again," he said. "Besides, Yamato would've been a better choice anyway."

"Yeah right," she said.

I'd had enough. I was so confused, and I couldn't even find them. It was so dark all around us, and the hallways just carried noise. I couldn't tell if they were right in front of us, or somewhere else in this maze of hallways.

"Are they…on your side, Miss Inoue?" Natsuni asked me.

Right. She'd never met them. This could've been interesting.

"Yes," I said simply.

"Taichi, Sora!" Noriko shouted. "Come over here!"

"What was that?" Sora asked.

"Did you recognize her?" came a gruff voice, I placed it as WarGreymon.

"Not really," Taichi said.

"Over here," I called out. "It's me, Miyako!"

I was the only one in this group they'd have answered to. Iori was evil to them, Natsuni was a stranger, and Noriko wasn't worth remembering apparently.

"Oh thank god," Taichi said. "Keep talking, we'll find you."

"Okay, so we totally saved Momoe and Natsuni and Noriko, and now we've got a green digimon following us around who used to be their prison guard, but was apparently too awesome to leave behind, and then we were attacked by LadyDevimon, and she made the ceiling cave in, and trapped herself, but separated us from the others, and Momoe really is pregnant. There was a part of me that just could not believe that until I saw it, and oh boy is she pregnant. She could blow at any second, and you know she was just in a rock slide, so I'm a little worried about her, and then you say that Ken isn't evil anymore? What the hell is that about? He was totally evil just ten, maybe twenty, minutes ago. He was trying to kidnap me and turn me evil too. I'll have bruises from him and Mimi fighting over me tomorrow, I'm sure," I rambled.

It was at that point, that Taichi and Sora came into view, thanks to the warm glow that Phoenixmon was letting off.

"We see you now," Sora said. "And Phoenixmon cured Ken and Yamato of their evilness. Ankylomon, MetalGarurumon and GranKuwagamon were also saved. Michael, Kurayami, Daisuke, Betamon and Iori weren't there however, so they're still evil. You should be careful. Iori left after you. He could still be out here trying to find you."

"I'm right here actually," Iori said.

"Gack!" Taichi gasped. "Get away from him."

"You're terrible," I said. "And he's on our side. Always has been."

"Okay…." Sora said.

"Wait," Taichi said suddenly. "Where's Hikari? She's supposed to be with you. Was she with Momoe?"

"No," I said. I didn't get a chance to explain however, because he turned to Noriko, who was closest to him, and grabbed her shoulders.

"Where's my little sister?" he demanded.

"I…I…I don't know!" she said, breaking into sudden tears.

"Great," Iori said. "You made her cry. As if she wasn't annoying enough."

"That was rude Iori," Sora said.

"It's not like it wasn't true," he pointed out. She couldn't say anything against it though, making me laugh for a few short seconds, before reality crashed down on me again.

"I want to know where the hell my sister is," Taichi said loudly.

"Jou and I went left when they went right. We split up," I said. "Willis, Mimi, Hikari and Rosemon went with Takeru and MagnaAngemon, and Jou and I stuck with Valkyrimon. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Then where is she?" he asked. "Is she okay?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, it damn well matters," Taichi roared at me.

"That wasn't me," I said.

"Then who was it?" he asked.

"That would be me."

The wall burst right then, letting a long, winding digimon to snake his way into the corridor. He was a sea monster, I thought, with metal plating and a bush of spiky, purple hair at the back of his armoured head. I felt like I should know him, he reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place him.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," Sora groaned.

"You're a little late to the party," Taichi said. "The Dark Masters aren't a problem for us, even with the X-virus. I thought that was clear when Puppetmon was beat by a rookie."

"Machinedramon is dead too," I said. "Valkyrimon beat him."

"What?" the snake monster said in a roaring voice. "That's not possible. Fanglongmon has made then invincible."

"Not as invincible as he might think," Sora summarized.

WarGreymon and Phoenixmon moved between us and the snake monster, and Goblimon stood tall in front of Natsuni. It was adorable. I mentally slapped myself. Now wasn't a good time to be noticing things like that. But I couldn't help it. Everything was getting emotional to me. It was the lack of sleep. I was always bordering on tears and panic, and I thrived on cute things. The fact that I was separated from Valkyrimon wasn't helping either…

The monster roared loudly in anger. "River of Power!" he shouted, shooting a beam of energy from the tip of his nose—which looked like a cannon, thanks to his armour—right at us. WarGreymon jumped in front of us, and turned his back to the attack, using his shield to deflect it.

"You dare mock the power of the Dark Masters?" he said with a terrifying laugh.

"Yeah we dare," Taichi said. "You weren't that hard to beat last time, MetalSeadramon!"

"Last time?" the monster—MetalSeadramon I supposed—asked, confused for just a moment. "I am much more powerful."

It sounded to me as though he were talking of two different digimon, but no one else seemed to care about his odd wording, dismissing it immediately as bragging.

"WarGreymon, let's take him down just like last time," Taichi said, making MetalSeadramon look at him strangely again.

"No," Sora said. "It's mine and Phoenixmon's turn. We've never had a chance."

Taichi considered this, and nodded his head. He signalled to WarGreymon to wait until needed and let Sora and Phoenixmon take centre stage.

"If we're going to be fighting to the death," Natsuni said. "I want to know who I'm fighting with."

Taichi looked at her oddly, but Sora seemed to understand.

"I'm Sora Takenouchi," she said. "And you're Natsuni Ando, right?"

"That's right, Miss Takenouchi," Natsuni said, shaking her hand.

"I'm Taichi," Taichi said with a smirk.

Natsuni looked at him and opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't say anything. She was getting rather frustrated, when Iori leaned in to whisper it in her ear, before backing away awkwardly. He seemed to have just remembered the kiss. "Nice to meet you as well Mr Yagami."

Taichi scowled at Iori.

"Let's get this battle started," I said, before they could start arguing.

"Right," Sora said. "Phoenixmon, let's go!"

"Crimson Flame!" Phoenixmon shouted.

"Not so fast," MetalSeadramon said. "Shimetsuke!"

I was surprised to see that it wasn't a power blast, he seemed to be about showy attacks, but he coiled himself around Phoenixmon and tightened, slowly crushing Phoenixmon.

"Come on," Taichi said. "He's not that strong, Phoneixmon. You can do it! He's just a Dark Master."

He was egging him on, hoping he'd distract him enough to make him let her go.

_Enough!_

I jumped. It was him. He was in my head for the first time. I was torn between panicking and crying…my body settled with shaking uncontrollably, making me fall to my knees.

He surprised MetalSeadramon too, causing him to drop Phoenixmon into a lump on the floor.

_It cannot be true._

He sounded desperate. The others seemed to be looking around the ceiling of the room, as if they'd find him there. Iori was the only one that didn't understand. He couldn't hear him. Natsuni curled up in Goblimon's arms, crying softly, while Noriko clung to Iori's arm. He didn't understand why we were upset, but he didn't push her away either. He seemed to grasp that the fear we felt was powerful and serious.

_It is_. I thought back to the monster—quite brave of me I thought.

_How? You are mere children, weak compared to me and my X-virus._

My battle against Machinedramon flashed quickly through my mind. He was pulling it out, sorting through my memories for proof of what we said.

_No._

He was surprised. If I wasn't so terrified of him, I might have been proud of having done this to him. He wasn't nearly as ominous when he was underestimating us.

_I see. The Dark Masters were a waste of time, they were not all I had hoped. They are not worthy of my guidance._

Phoenixmon had gotten back up, after MetalSeadramon's last attack. "Crimson Flame!"

Everything seemed to happen at once.

Phoenixmon unleashed a burst of fire, powerful and burning hot, at MetalSeadramon.

Taichi, Sora, and Iori caught their breaths.

Natsuni and Noriko hid behind Goblimon and WarGreymon.

Fanglongmon's voice returned to my head, saying _I'll leave them to their own devices, I no longer care_.

MetalSeadramon's dark, cold eyes cleared to a beautiful sea-green that I'd seen on a Seadramon numerous times.

And Michael's heart-wrenching scream of "No!" sounded, as he crawled through the hole in the wall MetalSeadramon had created.

I realized all too late why he'd seemed so familiar. This MetalSeadramon was little Betamon. He was Michael's partner, not a Dark Master. That's why he didn't remember the last defeat. Because it wasn't him. Fanglongmon had made us fight one of our own.

Sora screamed out to Phoenixmon, but it didn't help. Phoenixmon wasn't in control of the attack anymore.

And as the fire attack hit him, ripping MetalSeadramon into digital data, I realized that he'd made us do more than that. He'd orchestrated it so we killed him.

I watched in horror as Michael fell to his knees, screaming for his digimon. Tears streaming down his face, one hand over clutching his chest, the other in a fist as he hit the ground.

"Betamon," he cried. "No, Betamon!"

_If you want something done right…do it yourself_.

"Oh no," I whispered, causing the others to look to me instead of Michael with questioning eyes masking their horror. "Fanglongmon…he's preparing to fight."

"Damn it!" Taichi roared, running his hand through his hair, looking from me to Michael and finally to where our friend had one stood tall.

_**Kae:**_

"Creatures like this, they're called digimon," Toshiko was saying to a young couple. "There are both good and bad, but at this point, if they attack, you attack. Got it?"

"But you've got one right there," the man said. "So you're working with them."

"No," Rei said. "We're not. We're warning you so you can protect yourself. Haven't you seen them running around town?"

"Yes," the young woman said. "I was going to get my hair done today, but I was too afraid to leave the house."

"I'm surprised you opened the door then," Bakemon said with that spooky smile of his.

"I'm starting to question it myself," the man said.

"Just listen," Rei pleaded.

"We've heard enough," he said.

"No," Toshiko yelled at him. Her voice was firm and quite frightening. "My daughter is out there saving your sorry behinds, the least you can do is have a baseball bat or a frying pan or a shotgun handy to defend yourself."

"You should get them back to the nut house," the girl told me in what I'm sure she thought was a kind voice.

"My son could be dead," I said levelly. "And you _will_ be if you don't prepare yourselves. You were scared to leave the house? Well, guess what. The digimon aren't going to leave you alone because you have the doors locked. They can break them down. There are digimon that can fly. They'll break in through your windows. They seem to have declared war against humans, and you _are_ human. They're after you. If you want to live, do something about it. This is no joke. We captured one by fighting."

"I've never heard her speak so much," Rei whispered to Toshiko. She nodded. The way the young pair was looking at me no longer screamed we're-talking-to-crazy-people. They were scared. Not terrified, but scared enough to do something about it. I was proud of myself. I'd convinced them. It was a big accomplishment.

"We'll just…get ready then," the young man told us. His girlfriend nodded quickly, grasping tightly to his hand, muttering about finding a crowbar or something. His eyes lit up, and he dragged her back into the apartment. He must have thought of the perfect tool for defense.

"So that's all of Heighten View Terrace," Toshiko said.

"And west Odaiba," Rei added.

"Let's continue east then," I suggested. "We're accomplishing something. I just hope we're doing enough."

"We're doing all we can," Toshiko said. "At least until we can find Wisemon."

"Hiroaki," Rei said brightly.

"Him too I suppose," Toshiko accepted.

"No," she said. "He's right there!"

"Goodness," I said when I saw him. He was haggard. His journey must not have been fruitful. He looked like someone just stole his favourite label maker. I supposed his ex-wife might be a little more valuable than a label maker, but I don't know what I'd do without mine.

"Wizardmon, Hiroaki," Rei shouted happily, running up to him. The girl had too much energy for me to keep up. Being in a wheelchair for years must do that to you.

"Miss Saiba," Hiroaki greeted in a weary voice.

"Did you find her?" she asked hopeful, she must not have seen the same thing I did.

"No," he sighed, looking miserably down at the ground.

"What about Taichi or your boys?" she asked.

"I saw Takeru and Hikari," he said. "But they couldn't stay."

"They have to save the world," Wizardmon explained.

"Right," Rei said, though I could tell that it was starting to get to her, us not knowing. It was different for her. It was our children, my son, the only one I had left. I couldn't handle losing him too. It still hurt to think of Osamu, my baby that was taken from me too soon. Rei didn't have these connections. She had the choice of being involved. She didn't have to worry over any of this if she didn't want to. The fact that she'd stayed with us so long endeared her to me. She cared, truly, really cared, about the fate of my son and his friends.

"We're here to do our part," Wizardmon continued.

"If I can't help Natsuko, I'll be damned if I don't help my sons," Hiroaki said with a glint in his eye. He'd found his old determination, and we were going to do this. We'd finish warning the people, and then we'd take out Wisemon, in the name of our children, because that was all we could do for them now.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** The arc finale is next, with Daisuke, Takeru and Iori taking over to tell the next bit of the tale. Kae also gives us an update on what's going on with the Parent Squad (as I've dubbed them).


	42. Shot Through The Heart

**Y/N: **Yay, we've got the first Thanksgiving chapter! It's Takeru and Daisuke with a little hint of Iori. And I really enjoyed being Iori and Natsuni this time around. Daisuke was a little difficult. It was hard to get the balance right of him and Fanglongmon in his mind. I hope you like it though, and are looking forward to tomorrows update!

**U/N:** soooo... we said it would be up on Saturday, but Sunday-Monday is the actual holiday of Thanksgiving and there are two chapters so we decided to put them up one on each day instead, but you still get both this weekend, soooo you're welcome. They're both really dramatic and long and... well... i don't like the first, this one. it feels messy and chaotic... but it was kind of fun i guess to do. Well... i dunno, maybe i'm just sick of being takeru-i've been him a lot lately-i dunno. Anyway, i hope you like it, and i hope you review it... and stuff...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: Chaos**

**Chapter 42: Shot Through the Heart**

_**Shuu:**_

"Bro...?" I was pulled from my stare toward my father by Mantarou Inoue. "You alright?"

"Fine." I said simply. "Now what's the plan exactly?"

"We're going to Odaiba." Haruhiko said as his digimon, Centaurumon helped him climb upon his back. Haruhiko looked to the rest of us. "Well I am. You all want to come too?"

We all nodded, including Mantaru and Chiziru.

"It'll be fun." Chiziru piped up.

And then we were gone, without another word we were all hurrying down the street, Centaurumon and Haruhiko in the front of course. Jun had been taken aside by Mantarou and Chiziru to be questioned so it left me with some space and time to think.

I'd always known my dad would be upset with me if I followed my dreams, but the realization that it all happened right now... was different. It was almost as bad as a heart breaking—only... it was just my dad... and I used to love him, but the way he was recently... I did not love that.

"What are you thinking of?" I looked up, it was Meramon.

"Just my father." I told him with a fake grin. "It's okay though. What were you thinking about?"

"Actually you." Meramon said in his raspy voice. "At first I was thinking about how I loved the Yokomon—how I wanted so desperately to save them... and how I was stuck here... away from the only creatures who weren't scared of me. But then I noticed that you, also, were not scared of me. Why is that?"

"You're not so bad." I told him simply, "You come off a little strong, chasing people and trying to burn down historic schools, but at the same time, you really are nice. You're kind and you care for those who care for you. As far as I can tell, you're not a bad guy. There's nothing to be scared of."

"I'm not scared of you either." Meramon said, looking away.

"Are you... embarrassed?" I asked him, laughing.

"What?" He gasped, "No..."

"Well, it's true. You're a good guy." I told him. "And I'll help you find your Yokomon if it's the last thing I do. And I'll protect you."

"I doubt that I will need your protecting..." Meramon said, "But now that you've brought it up... perhaps _ I_ could protect _you_?"

"I'd like that very much, sir." I told him with a laugh, "And together we'll find those Yokomon—no matter how long it takes."

A ball of light seemed to pop into existence in front of me before disappearing and leaving behind a small grey device. A digivice!

"Looks like..." I said, picking it up from the ground where it had landed. "Looks like we're partners now."

"A partner?" Meramon asked, "I've... never had a partner before."

"Well no," I told him, "That's sort of the point."

"So we are friends now...?" He asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, I guess." I smiled up at him.

"Well... as your friend, I will help your friend find his lover. And then we will find Yokomon?"

"Y-yeah." I told him, "Sure thing."

"Good," he smiled at me.

So I wasn't really expecting a partner—and especially not from the digimon who had chased me down and tried to destroy me only a few hours ago, but I was happy... it was like, just knowing that I was important enough to have a partner made me realize that I had done right. I'd picked the right life path. I had Jun, I had a partner, I had two amazing brothers, and a handful of close friends. And sure Mantarou and Chiziru were a little off, but this was a good moment for me. I was happy... no matter what my dad wanted... this was what I wanted.

_**Takeru:**_

"Takeru, listen to me!" Hikari called out to me as I stormed through the twisting narrow hallways of the fortress. She was trying to calm me down. But that wasn't possible.

My mother... died.

In front of me.

I saw it happen.

I couldn't get the image of her face out of my head as the blade pierced through her... nothing seemed at all logical anymore. We'd been through so much in the past... from Devimon to where we are now... Sora and I had jumped down a giant pit of doom to save our friends... and yet didn't die. And so I thought... that just maybe—no one could die. It was a family friendly, super safe mission... Other than Oikawa I supposed. But...

Everything had always worked out the way I wanted. I'd never really had to face something... sad. I mean, sure my parents had gotten a divorce—but, like I had wanted, pleaded for—even prayed for... they had started dating again. Yamato and I had stayed close since the divorce anyway, and then, when I was at a loss of friends and hope... the digital world opened up to me and I found Patamon, and then, even more importantly... Hikari. At first I thought it was strange that they had given me the crest of hope—but I now understood... I always just... got what I wanted because of some strange force I had... hope. But now...

The worst thing ever.

My mother died.

"Takeru!" Hikari and Magnaangemon tried together.

But I ignored them. They were following me still. I didn't know where I was going and I didn't care. I wasn't paying attention. All I knew was that Piedmon had gone somewhere that I couldn't follow, and so I had to find a way to get to him. He needed to die. And I needed to save Mimi and Rosemon.

Also Willis I guessed.

But screw him. I wasn't in the mood to try and put up with him. He was too nice, and too perfect and he was dating Hikari. I couldn't pretend to like him anymore—at least not now. He sucked. And I hated him.

But I'd save him too.

I'd save him if it made her happy.

"TAKERU! LISTEN TO ME!" I suddenly turned around to see Hikari, her eyes clenched shut and her hands balled up into fists. Slowly she opened her eyes and stared at me.

"W-what is it?" I said through gritted teeth, trying to keep myself from crying.

"You need to calm down." She said stepping toward me and placing her hands on my shoulders. "I get that you're upset—in fact I'd be worried if you weren't, but you're focusing too much on revenge right now—it's not going to help you in the end. You need to focus on winning, and not going out of your way to fight Piedmon. That's what he wants. He's leading you to your death."

"And what am I supposed to do?" I asked her, "J-just let him win?"

"He won't win." She said flatly. "We will. But first, you need to trust me, and follow me." I looked over her shoulder and saw Magnaangemon nod slowly.

"Okay." I said nodding. Whatever she had planned was clearly important to her and so I decided it would be best to follow her. She smiled and hugged me around my neck.

"I'm really sorry about your mom Takeru..." She said. As she pulled away I could see tears in her eyes. She tried to hide them, turning away and rubbing her eyes quickly before clearing her throat and saying "Well, we'd better go..."

I nodded and followed her, back the way we had come,

Why was she going the wrong way? What was going on in her head...? Why was I following her? She wasn't right. I needed to kill Piedmon. I would make sure that happened too. Just... not yet apparently. Whenever Hikari decided to let me take him down... I would.

"_Mom! I'll be good, I'll eat my vegetables, change my underwear, watch for angry animals—I don't need your guidance! Lay off!"_

"_Right..."_

"_Mom—"_

"_Just go Takeru. It's not important anyway."_

"_I'm sorry..."_

And then she was gone... I was a bad son. I yelled at her for trying to help—and apparently I needed that help. I hadn't eaten any vegetables, or changed my underwear, and I'd been attacked by numerous angry animals... Mind, it was because I'd been in an epic battle to save the world—but still. I was stupid... she wanted to tell me something—and I think I understood now that it was her dating my dad. I smiled slightly at the thought before remembering that it was too late for happiness. She was gone.

Probably... a part of me wanted to believe that the third mother was just another Bakemon... but my mother was missing—but that could mean anything. Piedmon didn't necessarily have her!

I came back to reality as Hikari rounded a corner, heading down a hallway that I had decided against walking through. I wasn't sure how she knew what she was doing, or where she was going, but I could see the determination on her face as she ran, clutching her side. I realized suddenly that I was also in pain. I had cramps in my sides like I'd never had before. Running for two and a half days straight—not advisable apparently.

Suddenly though Hikari slid to a stop and Stared at a large cage.

I heard talking coming from inside as I took my place next to her. The entire wall was a prison cell, a very dark one at that. But there was no denying that there was something inside.

"H-Hikari?"

Hikari gasped suddenly as she hurried toward the cage and reached inside. A man burst through the darkness and grabbed her arm, a smile on his face. I recognized him as Hikari's father.

"You came to save me?" He asked her. She shook her head.

"I d-didn't even know you were taken!" She said, "But I'm glad I followed the sounds!" She looked toward me and saw that I was watching almost horrified. I couldn't change my expression... it was... stuck almost. Hikari cleared her throat, "Magnaangemon, can you open the cell?"

Mangaangemon, without a word, drew his sword and slashed it simply toward the lock on the door. The lock fell apart and fell to the ground as Hikari reached forward and pulled the door open. Her father rushed out of the cell door and threw his arms around her.

She pushed him off, glancing toward me, and then turning back to him. "How'd you get in here?"

"I was rebelling." He said with a crooked grin. "Masami and I." He laughed a little, pointing toward the cell where Koushiro's father stepped from the darkness with a digimon right behind him. I recognized the digimon instantly as Andromon.

"Where is Koushiro?" Mr Izumi asked me. I tried to speak, but no sound came out.

"Fighting." Hikari answered for me stepping back and taking my hand and squeezing it. "Like all the others." She looked displeased that we were all fighting. She shook her head quickly. "Anyone else in there?"

"The cell?" Mr Izumi asked, "Oh yes." He motioned toward some unseen people to follow out of the cell. I watched with wide eyes as over a dozen people stepped out of the darkness. I recognized one of them instantly as one of my brother's band mates. I didn't know, or care about his name. He was my least favourite of them all because he was just generally mean.

"Takeru?" A female asked. Her hair was long, blonde and wavy. "Is this you?" She stepped toward me and patted my face. She was wearing a red dress with a cardigan over top... and she looked _very_ familiar. "Is me! Catherine!"

"Oh!" I managed to say before forcing a smile upon my face. She was the digidestined from France. As I looked to her feet I saw a Floramon peeking around. I should have known it was her.

"What's the plan?" Mr Yagami asked as he looked around for something. "Wait a minute, where is Kamemon?" He asked.

"H-here..." A small timid voice said from the darkness as a small turtle like digimon with a helmet stepped from the darkness.

"Well come here." Mr Yagami laughed as he hurried toward him, scooping him into his arms.

"Where is the battle?" Andromon asked, "I want to help."

"No." Hikari said flatly. "You and everyone else here need to leave." Everyone, including the random citizens that I didn't know looked very upset by this news. "Leave the fighting to us, and get yourselves to safety. I need you to all get out of here alive." I bit my lip as Hikari squeezed my hand gently again. "Follow that tunnel," She pointed left down a dark tunnel, "And it should take you to the entrance if you keep going. If you run into Piedmon—a clown... run."

"Hikari, I'm not leaving you here." Mr Yagami said quickly.

"Yes you are." Hikari said flatly, pointing down the hallway.

"But you're sick." He argued.

"Not anymore." She said with a smile, "Dad, trust me. Just go."

"Right..." He said, turning to me, "Keep her saf—aren't those Taichi's goggles?" He asked, pointing to the goggles around my neck.

Oh that was right! I had forgotten that I had them on. I was the leader... an emotional wreck, a failure, and a loser. Leading everyone... I supposed now was a good time to lead then. Everyone was split up and doing whatever they wanted anyway...

"Good luck." Hikari said before pointing down the tunnel once more.

"Good bye Takeru..." Katherine said to me, smiling before taking Floramon's hand and rushing down the hallway after the others.

"Now what?" Hikari asked.

"We find your brother, Hikari." Magnaangemon said.

"You know where Taichi is?" She asked.

He nodded. "I can hear him."

Hikari laughed a little as Magnaangemon, without an order, led the way. I wasn't paying any attention at all this time. I couldn't care less where we were going. In all honesty I just wanted to find Yamato and tell him what happened, but I knew it wasn't the time for that.

As we rounded a corner there was a flash of light engulfing a Metalseadramon and a loud scream.

"Betamon!" I heard Michael scream. "NO! Betamon!" My heart practically ripped from my chest as I realized what had happened. Fanglongmon... had caused us to fight one another—and now succeeded in weakening our army... luckily for Michael... digimon never really died... not like humans.

"Fanglongmon... he's preparing to fight." Miyako said as Sora ran to comfort Michael. He pushed her off and ran toward the place where Metalseadramon had just been where an egg was forming. Noriko and Natsuni were standing on either side of Iori, looking in shock to Michael.

"Damn it!" Taichi roared.

"Taichi!" Hikari shouted suddenly.

"Hikari!" Taichi turned sharply toward the two of us and was running toward us quickly. He threw his arms around Hikari, "You're okay?"

"Yeah." She said simply.

"Takeru...?" Iori asked me, stepping to the side to be seen over Taichi's shoulder. "What's... wrong?"

Before I could say anything the ground began to shake violently. Hikari grabbed my arm to balance, but it was no use, the two of us fell to the ground, landing painfully on the concrete. Soon Taichi had fallen just in front of us, and the others were falling over like dominos.

"What's going on?" Noriko asked loudly. It was then that I actually realized that they'd rescued them... I was happy for them of course... but not sure if I cared. I was also confused as to what Iori was doing on their side as I watched him fall to the ground.

"It's Fanglongmon!" Miyako shouted. "He's leaving!"

"Why?" Sora asked.

"I... don't know!" Miyako answered simply.

"Well does it really matter?" Natsuni asked as she grabbed the wall for balance, being the only one still standing. "No matter what he's doing, it's bound to be bad. We need to stop him!"

"Mhm!" A muffled voice sounded from behind her, bringing my attention to a strange digimon holding her around the waist. It looked like a small Ogremon...

Suddenly the ground stopped shaking and we all got to our feet and dusted ourselves off. Hikari and Taichi helped me up. Taichi was staring around my neck at the goggles but I just rolled my eyes. He saw my unimpressed expression and nodded, turning to the others.

"It's time to do something." He said, "We've been walking around, running in circles, or back and forth, splitting up, and then fighting one another, but it's officially time to do something. Let's get everyone together and fight Fanglongmon."

"Piedmon." I corrected him.

"Takeru..." Hikari said, placing her hand on my shoulder. "It's not the time for revenge."

"This isn't about revenge." I said flatly. "Well, it is a little. But he took Mimi. He has her—and we can't win unless we're all united as one. We need to find him and we need to kill him. We need Mimi."

"He has Mimi?" Sora and Miyako asked together.

"We can't just go looking for trouble though." Hikari said sharply.

"I'm not." I told her. "I'm trying to save Mimi, and your boyfriend—or do you not care about him? Actually, don't answer that. I'm wearing these goggles, and so we're going to go find Piedmon. And we're going to kill him. And we're going to take Mimi and we're going to kill Fanglongmon, and then I'm going to go to sleep."

"Is that a smart plan...?" Sora asked.

"Well he's wearing the goggles." Taichi said flatly. "Wasn't it you who made this rule up Sora? What Takeru says goes." Taichi smirked to Sora who rolled her eyes at him.

"Then I guess we're going to go... kill... Piedmon." Iori said shakily.

I looked to Hikari almost triumphantly, but she wasn't happy. I should have guessed it... but it wasn't even unhappy. It was disappointed. Well... if she was in love with Willis, then I wasn't in any place to be worrying about her feelings. And it wasn't her place to be telling me what to do anymore... Piedmon was going down.

_**Daisuke:**_

Something was not right about the experiment. It wasn't anything that had gone wrong during the process. From a strictly unbiased point of view, it was a roaring success. But there was something…

I couldn't figure out what it was, but I didn't like it.

I _should_ have enjoyed it though. My master…Fanglongmon…he had wanted it, therefore to have achieved his will, that was to have helped creating greatness. Wasn't it? Of course it was. Fanglongmon had told me so, and therefore it had to be true.

But it wasn't.

And hearing Michael yell after his digimon, telling him to stop, all the while knowing that he was no longer Michael's to command…that seemed to cement that epiphany. It was scary, the way his voice broke, the wavering of fear. I should have thrived on it, as Kurayami had done.

I missed my Kurayami. This new one—old one?—was wrong. The Kurayami I'd known prior to coming back to the Digital World was nice. Very sarcastic, but with an adorable quality to it. She carried her guilt for her part in our last adventure, and was always careful not to mention Fanglongmon or what he'd made her do…and now... Fanglongmon took what made her Kurayami and replaced it with a dark, shadow of her. A mindless slave bent on the world's destruction.

And I was following her blindly.

She couldn't do this alone, and Fanglongmon…he needed me… He said he did anyway. It was all so perfect. I could spend time with Kurayami without needing to convince her, and I could help someone who needed a qualified leader.

Where in the job description did it say I'd have to genetically modify a friend's digimon—a friend in his own right—and watch as he sauntered away to his doom. Fanglongmon hadn't believed me. But I knew the Dark Masters couldn't be a match for the pure awesomeness that is the Digidestined.

No.

I believed in Fanglongmon. Right. I believed in him, and in everything he said was true. That was why I followed Kurayami into this dark, ominous laboratory.

The ground shook violently, mimicking my tumultuous thoughts.

"He is moving," Kurayami informed me. I didn't have to ask who he was. She spoke his name as though she were speaking of the single greatest being in the world. It was reverent. Also rather terrifying.

"Where?" I asked.

"Onwards," she said simply. "He will need us, his devoted servants, in this fight. He has given up pretenses. Now, we fight to kill, no more play."

I _should_ have been excited by that too.

"We will return for our allies," she said, standing and starting towards the door. She didn't pause even once, knowing that I would be following after her, like a lost puppy. Because I wanted to…or I used to, why couldn't I make up my mind?

Right. It was because Fanglongmon held half of it captive.

I was going to need therapy.

Even though I knew this, I still followed her. She led me through the dark narrow passages, until we were back in the cavernous room that the others were supposed to be fighting in. They weren't though. I supposed this was the reason that Fanglongmon had put a rush on his plans.

Ken and Yamato were sitting with Koushiro and Michael's girlfriend…_Tatum_ maybe? They were happy, talking animatedly. It would be so easy to go and join them, but I couldn't. It would be stupid. Fanglongmon was going to win after all. _And these traitors would fall with the rest of the pathetic human race._

"It's Kurayami!" Yamato exclaimed.

"It's time," she said to them.

"We know," Ken said with a smirk. "And we know exactly where we'll be fighting."

"Excellent," Kurayami purred.

I looked to her with a raised eyebrow. Could she not see that they weren't with us anymore? Was Fanglongmon's sanity going with the defeat of MetalSeadramon? It must've been, because she had the twisted look in her eye of someone who had lost their marbles.

"Follow me," she said.

"I don't think you understand," Yamato said. "You're on your own."

"I am never on my own," she exclaimed. "The master is _always_ with me. And those loyal to him, those that fight for our cause. They are the only respectable human beings."

"You're a human too," Ken pointed out. "Or has the master made you forget that? He made me, but Phoenixmon helped me remember. She gave me control of myself. You need to fight for that control."

"Enough," Kurayami snapped harshly. I didn't like this desperation. Fanglongmon was taking a beautiful, strong girl and turning her into an ugly monster—not literally of course, she was still pretty…but…there was something off-putting about the strain he was giving her. She looked like she'd aged immensely since we'd re-entered the Digital World. I supposed it was a reflection of the damaged he'd done on the inside.

I missed my Kurayami.

"If you're not with us, you're against us, and you can only pray to whatever deity you find that Fanglongmon will make your death quick and painless, but rest assured, he will _not_ spare a traitors like you!"

"Stop fighting!" Tatum yelled. "Sides aren't going to matter soon. It'll just be about survival. If you can't count on your friends, who will you trust?"

"I have no friends," Kurayami hissed.

That stung. I'd followed her, done everything she'd asked, so she wouldn't be alone, she wouldn't be scared of Fanglongmon, of the master. And she dismissed me like sour milk.

"Daisuke," she ordered. "Come. The master awaits us."

"You don't have to go," Koushiro said. "You can stay."

"He will come," she said. "Won't you?"

She turned and looked at me, and for a second, her eyes shifted back to normal. Just long enough for me to see the fear that they held host to. Fanglongmon was manipulating me. Again. The only difference was that this time I could tell he was doing it. Did that mean his grip was weakening? But it didn't matter. He knew exactly what strings to pull to make his little puppet move.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, looking back at them—noticing the two mega level digimon had yet to stop fighting, despite their partners' camaraderie—with sad eyes. I couldn't leave her. She needed me in a way that they didn't. I had to go where I'd be most useful.

"Good choice," Kurayami said haughtily, and I knew it was Fanglongmon mocking me. "You pathetic excuses of the human race had best hurry to your friends. The Dark Masters won't take kindly to their recent…_dismissal_."

"What do you mean?" Yamato asked, scared. I knew his mind had gone straight to his brother and girlfriend…perhaps ex-girlfriend… I really needed to keep up better. Not that it mattered. _Only my master's bidding was important_.

I shivered as Fanglongmon spoke through my thoughts again. I was starting to see how scary it was. I understood now why Kurayami was always so scared whenever he left. She knew he'd always come back, and take residence in the mind, lurking there, ready to pounce the moment you realize what he's up to. He'd never let me escape.

_You don't want to_.

That's right, I thought. I didn't want to. I wanted to follow Kurayami to the ends of the Earth, paving the way for digimon kind as we went.

"They've outgrown their usefulness," she said with that malicious smirk of hers. "And they'll be wanting to take that anger out on your lot."

"Takeru," Yamato whispered. A part of my mind revelled that I was right, but Fanglongmon crushed it down.

"Let's go," Ken said, blanching as he thought of Miyako.

_Relax. Give your mind to me_.

"Come Daisuke," Kurayami said, watching as they sped off down the hallways that they could not navigate. "Our master is most anxious for our presence."

"I can't say the same," I muttered.

A sharp pain started in my head and shocked my whole body.

"What was that?" she asked with a pleasant smile. Sadly that pleasantness was not in her eyes. It was a sadistic pleasure instead that hid there.

"We mustn't keep him waiting," I said louder, though my voice sounded muted to me.

"That's what I thought," she said, turning on her heel and stalking back into the hallway. And I followed her. Just like I always did.

_**Takeru:**_

"We shouldn't be looking for him." Sora said, running next to Hikari, the two girls holding hands tightly. Clearly Hikari had gotten to her and told Sora her opinion. But it didn't matter. I had the goggles and I was going to make one decision and one decision only. I wanted to kill Piedmon. I knew she was right about the revenge thing though, and I knew it was wrong to be so angry. I mean, I had reason to, but my mother always told me to keep my anger in check... but she was gone now and her opinion didn't matter...

I wanted to punch myself for even thinking anything similar to that, but I couldn't, we'd run into something rather unpleasant.

"Yamato!" Taichi gasped as we all skidded to a halt. Yamato was on Metalgarurumon with Ken sitting right behind him, having just bounded around the corner in front of us roughly. Airdramon was twisting through the air around the corner with Koushiro and Tatum on his back just behind them.

"T-Tatum..." Michael stuttered from behind me. I looked back to see him holding his new digiegg tightly. I wanted to comfort him, I knew what it felt like to have a close friend ripped away—first with Yamato, then Patamon, then Patamon, then Patamon _again_, and then Hikari, and now my mother... but there was no time for comfort. Not yet.

"Greetings." She replied coldly. She was staring at the back of Ken's head, refusing to look away, but I expect if she had, and seen Michael's face, or his digiegg she would have responded differently—well I assumed anyway.

"Yamato, what are you doing here?" I asked him. "Get out of the way."

"We're not standing in the way." Yamato replied.

"I beg to differ." Sora growled.

"So you trust Iori, but not me?" Yamato asked, pointing to Iori who was standing with Miyako, the two of them had been attached at the hip ever since we'd started off. Natsuni and her digimon were standing right behind them with Noriko a little ways off, pretending like she wasn't watching him when she clearly was. She had been careful not to go too far back so as to stay in front of Wargreymon and Phoenixmon, to keep safe.

"I wasn't evil." Iori shot quickly.

"And Michael?" Ken asked.

"Ken, just move or I will destroy you." The urgency in Miyako's voice made me think she was possibly serious, and the look on her face made me _positive_ that she was. I understood where she was coming from. I kind of wanted to pound Yamato's face into oblivion at that moment—but I knew that was just my random anger, and I needed to keep as calm as I could.

Ken looked in shock at her before looking down and nodding. "Miyako, I'm so sorry... I wasn't myself, it was Fanglongmon—I'm not asking you to forgive me, but at least know that I'm sorry... and don't blame me."

"Ken," Sora said, "Honestly, you need to stop trying to fix your relationship problems and get out of our way. Right now."

"Sora," Koushiro said quickly, "I have two things to say. One, I am with them, they're on our side—you were there. You fixed them. And two, where is Mimi?"

"Mimi is trapped with Piedmon." Hikari said quickly, "Along with Willis."

Before Koushiro could respond Taichi spoke up. "We don't have time for _any_ of this. If you're on our side, turn around and help us look for Piedmon."

"Taichi!" We all spun around to see Wargreymon as he called for his partner. Beyond him and Phoenixmon stood Piedmon, smiling almost wickedly with small key chains hanging from his belt. There was Mimi, Rosemon, Willis and that small green cat...

My heart was suddenly pounding fast. I looked quickly toward Magnaangemon, but he shook his head. He knew what I wanted but refused to do it. Again, I knew he, along with Hikari was right... but I wanted them to allow me this one thing. I wanted him to pay.

"Fanglongmon has left me." Piedmon said slowly. "And now to destroy you is all I have left." He looked to the ground slowly. There was a moment of silence as we all held our breath, scared of his next move. "But... I can't do that. I can't do that without watching you all suffer... one by one." He looked up to us all, his eyes flared and red. "Takeru... boy... you've suffered already haven't you? Well that's rather unfortunate for you... you made me suffer before—you ruined my path for greatness... and now, I will show you the pain you've shown me."

"Takeru run!" I heard Yamato yell as Metalgarurumon soared over my head, landing by Piedmon. Yamato was still sitting on his back.

I shook my head quickly, "Yamato no!" I screamed, "He's not after me! He's after you!" I saw Yamato turn his head to look at me with a strange amount of realization upon his face as the white sheet surrounded him and his digimon. "NO!" I screamed, my heart ripping from my chest. Figuratively...

I couldn't handle him going—not now...

"Run!" Taichi roared suddenly.

Before I knew what was happening I was surrounded by screams and running people and soon Sora had shoved Hikari toward me. She grabbed my hand and the two of us started running. I looked to Magnaangemon and he nodded, scooping the two of us into his arms and setting off, flying down the tunnel. I knew we had to fight Piedmon, but not like this... not with him in a fit of rage—I should have listened to Hikari... she knew what she was talking about...

"He'll be fine." Hikari told me, drawing my attention toward her. "He will. Trust me. We'll get him back."

"Terra Force!" I heard Wargreymon scream.

"Crimson Flames!" Phoenixmon's attack followed suit.

I twisted around in Magnaangemon's arms and peeked over his shoulder. The attacks did nothing, as Piedmon swished his hands and dissipated the attacks as if they were nothing.

"It's not working..." I heard Hikari say next to me. I glanced over and saw that she was watching too. I looked back in time to see Piedmon clap his hands.

At first I thought nothing had happened, but then suddenly all of the lights in the entire hallway went completely black.

I felt Hikari's hand clamp tightly onto my leg, the closest thing she could reach, as Noriko and Miyako both screamed ahead of us.

I heard an almost blood curdling scream from behind me and I knew it was Sora instantly.

"Sora?" Phoenixmon asked loudly, "S-Sora?" The voice shrunk to that of Biyomon's and I knew that Sora was taken.

"Terra Force!" Wargreymon shouted behind us as I looked back. He lit up the hallway with his attack revealing that Piedmon was halfway between him, and us, throwing another sheet toward Taichi.

"No..." Hikari whispered as Wargreymon's attack faded as he shrunk to Agumon.

"This can't be good." I said quietly.

Magnaangemon stopped flying abruptly as what appeared to be Tatum let out a loud scream. I looked toward her, but could see nothing but total darkness.

"Boo!" a raspy voice said in my ear. I turned quickly as Hikari screamed to see Piedmon's mask outlined in the darkness next to me.

And then I was dropped, Magnaangemon opening his arms to draw Excalibur. The violet light was shining in the darkness becoming the only thing I could see.

"Miyako!" I heard Ken call from the darkness.

"I've got her." Iori said almost defensively. "Now let's run!"

Before I had the chance to try and decide where to go I had been grabbed around the wrist by, who I assumed to be Hikari and dragged down the hallway. I could tell she was running her hand along the wall, and soon she had turned a corner where a light was flickering up ahead. Apparently Piedmon hadn't shut out all of the lights. I could see Miyako, Iori and Ken up ahead, but there was no sign of the others.

I looked over my shoulder quickly and saw that Magnaangemon was following us closely. I almost wanted him to go fight—but if he did there would be no way to help those who were taken by Piedmon... because he would lose. He stood no chance alone against the beast—but soon there would be no choice... everyone was being taken and turned into keychains.

For some reason none of this seemed real to me... they weren't gone. Maybe because it was nothing compared to my mother—but they were. If those of us remaining didn't do something to stop Piedmon...

"AAUUURGH!" It was Koushiro and it followed a rather loud 'thump', "Tatum!" he called in between gasps of pain. I gathered that Tatum had pushed him off of Airdramon and he had landed on his bad shoulder—but that was just a guess really. There was no response from Tatum and so I didn't know if she had been taken or not... I couldn't see a thing.

The last thing I heard before the sound of Koushiro running after me was "Natusni! NO!" escaping from Noriko's lips...

There was no stopping him... he was a monster... how could we win if everyone was being taken from us? Ken and Koushiro's digimon were busy fighting each other from what I'd seen last, Miyako's was trapped somewhere with Jou whose digimon was MIA with Iori's, and Hikari's was already taken by Piedmon. That left me, Agumon and Biyomon—wherever they were... How was I supposed to fight him alone?

I looked over my shoulder and didn't see him... at least that was something...

_**Natsuni:**_

Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no. This wasn't supposed to be happening. None of it. I wasn't supposed to be kidnapped by dangerous creatures, get locked in a cage with fellow victims, confuse reality with film magic—resulting in the kissing of my best friend—only to get attacked by a scene from a horror movie the minute I'm free.

I was supposed to be worrying about whether Iori would still be my friend, not worried over my life. I betrayed him…kind of. Well, a little bit. He told me right when we met pretty much that he would never want anything romantic, and I'd agreed. And the problem wasn't that I'd developed strong feelings for him that were too powerful to reign in; the problem was that I kissed him for no real reason. He probably was contemplating the pros and cons of having a friendship with me now that he thought I liked him that way.

And Noriko was annoying as ever. She watched him like a hawk. She was creepy, and scary, but nowhere near as creepy or scary as this clown—horror movie villain much?—that was chasing after us. I was running with Noriko, Goblimon and Michael of all people and we were trying very hard to keep up with the others, to keep ahead of the clown, but it wasn't working. Noriko and I had stayed in a cramped cell for the past day or two. I didn't even know how long we'd been there. But we weren't up for running. We needed to stretch our legs, start small and work our way up. This wasn't healthy. And a part of me wished I'd been on the other side of the cave-in with Momoe and Mr Kido.

That part was the part of me that was scared skinny.

The rest of me was trying to decide the best way to get out of this alive, preferably with my friends in tack, and as many of Iori's friends as I could.

But no matter which way I sliced it, I was one of the victims. The people in horror movies that are only put in there to be taken as easy pickings. I didn't have a digimon partner, I was weak from my stay in the cage, and I was one of the few that only had a tiny link to the group.

I was a goner.

"Three little outcasts, all in a row."

Correction, I was already gone. Piedmon was right behind us, insulting us. So what if we weren't part of the original twelve, we weren't the ones wearing clown make-up. That was supposed to be _his_ motivation for destroying us all. He didn't fit in, he didn't belong, nobody wanted him. Something like that.

"Go, faster," Goblimon told me, pushing Noriko and myself ahead of him. Michael looked to him and nodded solemnly, before joining us. I didn't want to keep running. I wanted to stay with Goblimon, to fight with him at his side, but I wasn't his partner… so it would be awkward, and he was sacrificing himself to keep us safe.

It was a far cry from guarding our prison cell.

"You're the best they can offer? That's too bad," Piedmon told him. There was a sound, like the wind rushing through something, and then there was silence. "You didn't last long at all. Just another for my collection."

I didn't have time to cry. But I would have been if I could. He was my friend, and now he was a key chain. We just had to run harder, to make his sacrifice count for something. But there was nowhere to run. We came to a dead end—or maybe we'd just gotten turned around. Either way, there was a great big wall standing in our way on our path to freedom. Almost instinctively, Michael, Noriko and I turned to face our attacker.

"Backed up against a wall, with nowhere to go," Piedmon said with a smile. "Did you really think you'd be able to escape me?"

"We had to try," I said.

"Admirable, but foolish," he said. "And now you will join me…in my collection."

He tossed a bed sheet at us, and Noriko screamed bloody murder. And then she tackled me, pushing both me and Michael out of the way. That girl sure made it hard to hate her with stunts like these.

"A brave attempt, but not enough," Piedmon declared, before throwing another white sheet over Michael and I. Michael clutched his egg close to him, and wrapped his other arm around me, as I tensed up in fear. We were surrounded by the sheet, I struggled to get out, but I could feel my limbs getting stiffer. It was weird, watching myself turn into plastic, until I couldn't see anymore.

_**Otamamon:**_

"Oh my god!" I screamed as I ran around the corner in shock with Demiveemon right behind. "OH MY GOD!"

"Hush!" Demiveemon growled, "We need to keep quiet! Or he'll catch us!"

"Oh I don't want that!" I said.

"Me neither, so shush!" Demiveemon said, rolling his eyes. There was only darkness now and the only comfort was the sound of the soft footsteps of Demiveemon. I knew he was there, at least... even if Jun couldn't be.

"Who's there?"

"AHHHHH!" I screamed. "Who are you?"

"Agumon!" The voice shouted. "And Biyomon." It replied. "Who are you?"

"Otamamon!" I shrieked happily. "And Demiveemon!"

"Where are you?" Demiveemon asked.

"Just here!" Biyomon replied through the darkness.

"Where did Piedmon go?" Demiveemon asked.

"He ran after the humans..." Agumon said solemnly.

"Then we need to too." Demiveemon said. "If Daisuke isn't going to be the hero, then I'll have to be. I can't digivolve, but I know I can help somehow... so long as I try real hard." We both stopped running as we came up to two outlined figures who were clearly Agumon and Biyomon.

"We're going... toward him?" I asked.

"Yeah!" Agumon said, "We can do this!"

"I'm out." I said quickly.

"Then have fun... alone." Biyomon said as they turned to leave.

"Wait!" I shouted as the four of us ran off after Piedmon.

_**Takeru:**_

"Where has he gone?" Hikari asked as Koushiro caught up with us, his arm clutching his opposite shoulder, a look of pain and determination on his face.

"I don't know." Koushiro said flatly, clearly not wanting to beat around the bush. "Who all is here?"

I looked ahead to see Iori, Miyako and Ken again. "Just those three. And us I suppose." I told him, nervously looking over my shoulder for Piedmon. I didn't see him, but I did see Magnaangemon floating through the air behind us as we ran through the flickering lights.

But soon Miyako had let out a scream and I snapped around to see her with Iori and Ken throwing themselves around her as she clung to Iori for comfort. I felt bad for Ken, though it was his fault for turning evil and all... Miyako and him belonged together, no matter what one or the other had done...

But thankfully it wasn't Piedmon that she was screaming at. It was Ankylomon and Plesiomon who had come through a hole in the wall. Was that the one that Metalseadramon had come through? Had we run in a circle?

"Where is Jou?" Plesiomon asked quickly, seeing our urgent faces as Ankylomon was hugged by Iori.

"I... don't know." Miyako said slowly. "He's with Valkyrimon and... Momoe."

"If your partner is protecting mine, then I shall protect you." Plesiomon said nodding simply causing Miyako to give a small smile in return.

"I'm really sorry about everything," Iori said as he stepped back from his digimon, "I shouldn't have tricked you—or anyone for that matter, and I'm _so_ sorry."

"Honestly Iori," Ankylomon said, "Given the circumstances I don't think it matters in any way what we've done in the past. What matters is right now."

I smiled to him and Iori forgiving one another as Hikari, Koushiro and I caught up. Miyako looked to Ken who was staring at the ground.

"Can we go now?" Koushiro asked impatiently as he practically bounced on the spot. He was right though, we had to get going. If we were all that was left, then we were in for some serious issues when it came to facing Piedmon. I was scared. I don't think I'd ever been this scared while in a battle. There was always some glimmer of hope... but as it stood... we were surrounded by despair.

"Let's go." Hikari nodded, once again grabbing my hand and setting off at a run. I looked back to Plesiomon comfortingly and noticed that Terriermon and Lopmon were both on his back. They were watching us go. I knew it would be useless trying to convince them to come with us. They would want to help Willis... and for them—I decided that I simply _had_ to save Willis.

"Hikari!" Iori said sharply, but she didn't stop. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him though, trying to comfort him. But judging by the worried look on his face as he watched her run, it hadn't worked.

"Takeru, he's coming." Magnaangemon said slowly and quietly to me, startling me as he flew right next to me.

"What?" I gasped.

"He has yet to change his direction." Magnaangemon said.

"Speak in English." I was frustrated and flustered and I didn't have time for him to speak as he did.

"He hasn't turned the corner." Koushiro translated quickly. "We either need to get around that corner, or—"

"Or through that hole!" Ken hissed suddenly. Everyone stopped and turned to him as he pointed down the hole in the wall. No one had any idea where that hole would lead... but at the same time... we had to go. We had no choice really.

Ken motioned for Iori and Miyako to go through and they did so, hopping over the threshold. They were followed by Koushiro and then finally Hikari, Ken and I.

"I will stay. I will protect you." Plesiomon said. "Run."

"Ankylomon, come on." Iori said quickly, but his digimon, looking solemn shook his head. "No—"

"Iori," Miyako said worriedly, grabbing Iori's arm.

"No, Ankylomon!" Iori snapped, pulling free of her hold. "I'm not leaving you—not after everything I've just done to you!"

"I forgive you Iori." Ankylomon said. "And I can only ask that you forgive me to falling into Fanglongmon's hold while you remained pure of heart."

"I do!" Iori said nodding, "Of course I do!"

Suddenly Ankylomon lit up, lighting the entire tunnel with a blinding white light. "**Ankylomon digivolve to... Piximon!**" When the light dispersed there was a small pink bowling ball in the sky, it's large white wings spread wide as it clutched it's staff. I was definitely _not_ expecting Piximon.

Iori was smiling at his new digimon now, before trying to climb over the threshold to help Piximon fight.

"Iori no!" Piximon said in his high voice, "He's coming soon!"

"He's coming now." Magnaangemon clarified.

"I see him!" Plesiomon called out.

Piximon turned toward him. "Pixi bomb!" he held out his small hand and a bomb appeared out of nowhere as he threw it quickly toward Piedmon. I didn't see where it had gone, but I heard the explosion and then felt the ground shake. He'd caused a cave in...?

"I'll stay here for when he breaks through." Plesiomon said nodding, "Piximon, save the others."

"R-right." Piximon nodded, turning toward Iori, "Come on Iori, it's time..."

Iori nodded as Piximon flew toward him and pulled him back into the hole.

"Good luck Plesiomon!" Miyako shouted as we all turned to run, "Be safe!"

I heard Plesiomon speak quietly in an ominous voice. "I will make no promises." It honestly made everything a thousand times worse. How could we win if the strongest digimon we had on our side at that moment was planning on losing? Admittedly, adding Piximon to the equation of Piedmon vs Magnaangemon made the scene a little brighter in the very least...

"What's wrong?" Hikari asked as Ken led the way down the random new hallway we had entered.

"Nothing." I told her. "Don't worry about it."

"Takeru, _tell _me!" She insisted. I thought about lying and saying that the problem was that I was in love with her. But just because Willis was currently out of our world, did _not_ mean that I was willing to ruin her relationship with him, or her relationship with me. So I didn't.

"We can't win." I told her, "We don't have enough digimon."

"If only we had Angewoman..." Hikari sighed, "She'd help." And without even so much as a pause Hikari lit up. At first my tired mind jumped to her digivolving... **Hikarimon digivolve to... **

But the light was pink and the entire hallway was surrounded in the light.

"Are you _trying_ to help him find us?" Koushiro snapped as the light faded.

"Well I didn't do it on purpose." She said defensively.

"It doesn't matter," Ken said, "No one found us."

"Well that's not true."

We all turned quickly, my heart was, once again, ripped from my chest. Too much excitement... too much fear... too much sadness for one day.

But it was Agumon! Biyomon was standing next to him, and behind the two of them stood Demiveemon and Otamamon.

"More digimon!" Hikari clapped her hands.

"But none of them can digivolve." Miyako sighed as Otamamon ran toward her and leapt into her arms. "They don't have partners."

"One of them does." Hikari said staring toward Demiveemon who nervously stepped forward before following Otamamon's lead and leaping into Hikari's arms. "And I have faith. All we can do right now is hope. Don't lose hope... we can win guys. We always have."

I smiled at her as she winked to me. This would be harder than any battle we'd faced yet—or any battle that I had personally faced. A super strong mega and no one to fight it...

"P-Piximon?" Agumon asked.

"It's me!" Piximon smiled, "Armadillo—"

"We can do this _later_!" Ken and Koushiro said together. "Let's go." Ken finished as he and Koushiro started running. The rest of us copied quickly.

I wasn't sure how much more running I could handle just now. I was going to crash. I was going to fall asleep in the middle of this battle... but I couldn't. Magnaangemon and I both had to stay alive. We both had to stay ready to win. Ready to fight. Either that or no one would be able to return to their normal states...

"There's a room ahead!" Iori said loudly.

He was right, ahead of us I could see a large brightly lit chamber. The lights above were orange still though, lighting the stone walls and the concrete floor ominously. As we entered the room I noticed that it was large and round, but there were no other exits. And that's all that mattered really.

"Dammit!" Koushiro snapped. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"We fight." Biyomon said, determined. "We can still win if we fight as a group."

"This is literally the scariest place I've ever been in." Miyako said, wandering the room with Otamamon in her arms.

"Stay close." Ken warned. "We can't lose you too."

"Herculeskabuterimon!" I said suddenly. "And Grankuwagamon!"

"What about them?" Ken and Koushiro asked.

"We need them to help!" I smiled. It could work... right? I figured two more mega digimon would set the odds in our favour.

"They're not going to stop fighting though." Koushiro said. "There's no chance of them helping. They're too deep in their rivalry to help us. It's like... Superman and that bad guy!"

I was pleased that he was trying to relate to me using comic book characters, but he could have at least bothered to remember Lex Luthor's name...

And then it happened. The wall burst open at the side of the room opposite to the entrance way, right near Miyako. I couldn't see Piedmon, but I knew it was him as a large sheet of white floated into the room and surrounded Miyako and Otamamon.

"MIYAKO!" Iori and Ken screamed suddenly as the sheet fell and Miyako was gone. Piedmon slowly stepped into the room.

"All of this running is making me tiresome." He said slowly, collecting his new key chains. "I'm rather glad you all can't leave now.

I looked to the entrance way and gasped. It was shut...? How? I looked back to Piedmon to see him attaching Otamamon's key chain next to a very small Plesiomon.

"And I'm done these games. Let's get this over with." He pointed toward me and I panicked, but I soon discovered it wasn't me that he had been pointing at. Hikari let out a loud scream as her hand was ripped from mine and she was dragged through the air and slammed against the hard, concrete wall.

"Save her!" Iori snapped, "NOW!" He was scared—more than scared. He was petrified—so worried for Hikari's life. I turned to her, fear on my face as Piedmon drew a sword from his back. This one had a diamond on the end of the hilt as he threw it. He didn't pause even for a moment, throwing it directly toward Hikari.

"HIKARI!" I screamed as Piximon flew toward Piedmon, but it was too late—the sword was in the air... it was going to hit!

"Celestial Arrow!"

A glowing arrow shot through the sky and hit the projectile sword, shattering it. Hikari fell to the ground and looked slowly toward the entrance to the room. The door had been destroyed, and standing in the entrance way stood Angewoman.

"Angewoman!" Hikari and I said together.

"I found you... by your light." She said to Hikari who turned to Koushiro and with a mocking voice said, "Ha!"

Koushiro stuck his tongue out at her and I suddenly realized how calm everyone was. Was it just me then, who was worried? Other than Iori of course.

Pidemon swatted Piximon from the sky as he came to attack. Piximon fell to the ground near Koushiro as Piedmon turned quickly to throw the sheet toward the two of them.

"Help them!" I said panicked to Magnaangemon. I was upset with him for not trying—but there wouldn't have been time, and he was still right. He needed to stay safe... Agumon and Biyomon however had tried desperately to save them, running toward them to try and get them out of the way...

But they failed.

They were all gone now...

"How are you here?" Piedmon asked Angewoman, not turning to look at her.

"I just said." Angewoman replied. "I found Hikari from her light—" I was confused as to how she had digivolved until I remembered the times Hikari's digivice had been glowing...

"NO!" Piedmon snapped, turning toward her, reaching to his waist and pulling a keychain off of his belt. The small green cat. "You're right here!"

"No, clearly she isn't." Ken said with a grin. "Looks like the trickster has been tricked. Funny how these things work out, huh?" Piedmon, in a fit of rage threw one of his bed sheets toward Ken.

"NO!" Iori bellowed as he dived through the air and tackled Ken out of the way.

Piedmon stood in the center of the room and screamed loudly in a fit of rage, stomping his feet wildly. He was going mad... which would probably mean bad things for us... and all that was left... was Angewoman, MagnaAngemon, Iori, Hikari, Ken DemiVeemon and I. Things were not looking good as Piedmon turned toward us.

_**Daisuke:**_

I was confused. Kurayami wasn't leading me to the exit like I'd thought she would. Fanglongmon had left the building. If we were meeting him, should we not do the same? It wasn't until she started chuckling to herself with a vicious smile that I started to worry though. I wasn't going to like wherever she was taking me.

"You still awake old man?" she asked.

"Let me out!"

I recognized the voice, and could see a faint outline of a human in one of the cages that lined the walls. Fanglongmon wouldn't let me remember his name though. He worried over my allegiance. It made me think this guy was important to me before Fanglongmon took over.

"Now, now," she said. "You know I can't do that. The master enjoys seeing you in there. It means there is nothing standing in his way any longer. Your people at the Temple are meddlesome, but they won't do anything without your say so. And if you can't tell them anything…"

"Benjamin is second in command. Before I left, I told him to take charge," the man said. He reminded me of the Jedi warriors in that movie Iori made me watch after seeing it with his friend-who-just-happens-to-be-a-girl.

Jedi. Gedi. Genie? Gennai… Gennai!

He was the resistance's leader. He like handpicked the digidestined or something. He was incredibly important. And Kurayami had locked him in a cage. _Why do you care?_

I couldn't answer him. I honestly couldn't come up with a reason _not_ to care.

"He will fall with the rest of them," Kurayami hissed. "All wondering where there great leader is. Wondering when he'll come to save them. They'll think you abandoned them. Just as you did the digidestined. They can't stand you, can they? Your greatest heroes refuse to listen to a word you say. How does it feel to have fallen so far?"

"As long as the children are alive, there will always be time for retribution," Gennai told her calmly.

"As long as they _live_," she repeated. "Precisely. And they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What do you mean?" he asked. He moved closer to the bars; I could see him much more clearly now. He was tired, I could tell that much, and disheartened. He didn't like the way she was talking. Her harsh voice, her cruel words. And he was clutching something to his side with one hand. I looked harder. It appeared to be…and egg? Why did he have a digi-egg here of all places? It wasn't a good spot for a baby to hatch.

"Piedmon wants revenge," she said sounding thrilled. "And they are the perfect distraction for him. I'd wager they'll last twenty minutes, if even."

"They are stronger than you or your master," Gennai insisted. "They can do anything they set out to achieve. It is why they were chosen. They can handle this."

"When will you open your eyes you fool," Kurayami snapped. "The time for games and childish antics has long since passed. They're now fully grown, but fight the same as they did as children. We have improved vastly, and they are standing still, letting those who seek power and control to grow around them. They will not win!"

"We'll see," Gennai said firmly, but in a gentle voice. He knew this was aggravating her. The way he could ignore her attempts at riling him up.

She growled, narrowing her eyes into slits, before spinning on her heel.

"Keep up," Kurayami ordered me. I was quick to comply. Trying to think through Fanglongmon's tightened grip was proving to be exhausting anyway. _It was better this way_. I shook my head, trying to get him out, but all it accomplished was making him laugh at me.

His laughter almost drowned out the loud cry of "Help them!"

I don't know what made me do it, but something snapped inside of me at that sound. Takeru was screaming for help. Something had hurt someone else, and he was worried about them. Was it Yamato or Taichi? Could it be Ken? What if it was Hikari, or DemiVeemon?

He needed me. More than Kurayami did at that moment. It was enough to defy Fanglongmon. Not escape him, and I knew I'd be punished for it later, but I was able to do something he'd never allow. I stole the key that Kurayami had been taunting Gennai with, and threw it at him.

"Open it," I yelled at him, as he caught it with his free hand. He struggled to open the cage while juggling the egg, but he managed.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kurayami said in an outrage. "He is our prisoner. He's the symbol of Fanglongmon's triumph!"

"He's got somewhere else to be," I told her. "He's got to save the others."

"The traitors you mean?" she asked with a fake sense of calm.

"With our friends," I said.

"You are dangerously close to treason," she warned me.

"Fanglongmon can stuff it," I told her, before turning to Gennai. "Get going. Now! Before she stops you."

"Of course," Gennai said. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," I said. "Seriously. Don't."

Fanglongmon was outraged, and Gennai's thanks was pushing him closer to the edge. He was very much displeased by my disobedience. He was letting me know it by squeezing my mind, trying to make me squirm, to scream out in pain. But I wasn't going to give it to him. I was only trying to clean up his mess after all. Piedmon was out for revenge, and it was Fanglongmon's fault.

And if Piedmon destroyed Hikari, then how would Fanglongmon get what he needed from her?

My thought process seemed to placate Fanglongmon. For now. I could tell that he'd be tightening his leash on me. And there wasn't much I could do to loosen it again.

Gennai started running towards the sounds, and at Fanglongmon's urging, Kurayami and I followed. He needed Hikari dead, but there was something he needed from her. It was enough to save at least one of my friends for now anyway.

Gennai stopped running only when he was standing in from of what I assumed was Piedmon. I hadn't actually paid attention when Kurayami had introduced the Dark Masters to me. I didn't care. Now I wished I'd listened a little closer.

"Oh?" the clown digimon said. He sounded highly amused. "Did someone else want to fight me?"

"Gennai!" Hikari shouted happily.

"It is you and me now," Gennai told the clown, after nodding in Hikari's direction. His eyes never left Piedmon's, though he handed her the digi-egg. To be honest, mine didn't either.

"How exciting!" Piedmon said, clapping his hands together. Instead of seeming childish, I found it quite creepy. "Let's."

Both Gennai and Piedmon reached to their waist, where they drew a sword each. They held them in front of themselves, and nodded as one.

"Begin!" Gennai shouted.

And the fight started. The two ran at each other, and just as I thought the swords were going to clash, Gennai ducked underneath Piedmon's blade, sliding behind him, and raising his sword as he spun to face him, bringing it down on him. But Piedmon expected this. He brought his own blade back up to meet it, starting a battle of wills.

"You going to use your mind tricks on me?" Piedmon asked in what he thought was a witty way.

"I leave the mind tricks to your master," Gennai said. Then he left a short but dramatic pause. "Oh, that's right. You were fired."

Piedmon didn't take too kindly to that, and pushed Gennai and his sword away from him. They started doing quick sword movements that I thought looked kind of silly, kind of like fencing—you know, where it looks more like you're playing than actually trying to win?—while moving their feet much to gracefully.

Figuring Gennai had Piedmon busy, I took a quick glance around the room. I was shocked by how few people I saw. I shuddered, realizing that Taichi, my mentor was gone. And Miyako and Willis. Michael and Yamato, who until very recently were my own teammates, were also gone. I'd seen Yamato no more than ten minutes ago, and the last thing I'd done to Michael was aid in the destruction of his digital partner.

And my best friends were fighting for their life. DemiVeemon, Ken, Takeru, Iori, they were trying desperately to keep Hikari safe, while two angel digimon tried to keep the humans from the battle. Now Kurayami and I were in danger as well, and Gennai. All because of one digimon's need for absolute power.

_Power belongs to those that deserve it._

"Take that!" Piedmon shouted. "And that."

"Talk less with your words and more with your sword," Gennai instructed. "You're voice is causing me more pain than the blade."

Fanglongmon forced back my laughter. I'd never known Gennai could be so funny, and Fanglongmon didn't agree with humour.

"Engarde!" the digimon shouted, pushing Gennai back with all his might. Gennai went flying into Angewomon, who caught and steadied him. It was enough of a distraction though. Piedmon took advantage of the moment, throwing what looked to be a bed sheet over at the two. When the sheet was pulled away, I was horrified to see that there were just key chains left behind. Intricate key chains, that depicted the two fallen warriors.

"Angewomon!" Hikari cried. "I just got you back! No!"

Takeru had to hold onto her, to keep her from running at the key chain. Piedmon walked over and picked them up, attaching him to his belt, where I saw he had quite the collection going. Maybe Fanglongmon should have tightened his grip on Piedmon instead of me. He'd be winning right now, instead of losing to a "despicable Dark Master".

I heard Fanglongmon roar in my mind.

"Right," Takeru said. "Okay. MagnaAngemon. You need to get out of here. We can't save them if you become a key chain too."

"Then you have to leave too, Takeru," Hikari said. "He won't be MagnaAngemon if you're taken."

"Damn," Takeru said. He didn't sound anything remotely like himself. He had a sort of crazed aura, as though he was desperate for revenge. I wished I knew what he needed it for. Maybe I'd help him…

_No._

Maybe I wouldn't help him then.

"You are dropping like flies," Piedmon said.

"Didn't you know," I said before Fanglongmon could stop me. "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

"My vinegar seems to be working _just_ fine," Piedmon snapped at me. Then his eyes slid off of me towards Ken and Kurayami.

My heart started pounding.

He remembered them—oh who was I kidding, of course he remembered them—and he knew just how highly Fanglongmon held them.

"No," I whispered. He couldn't take Ken, he couldn't take Kurayami.

_If they are weak enough to be caught, they deserve to be._

"No," I repeated, louder. "Ken, Kurayami, watch out!"

But it was too late. Piedmon had captured them in another white sheet. My hands were shaking in my rage. That damn clown though he was funny, eh? Well he had another thing coming.

"DemiVeemon," I said loudly. "It's time for us to kick this clown out of the circus."

"Daisuke?" Hikari asked. "Are you back?"

"And ready for action," I said, glaring at Piedmon. "It's time to teach this guy who's boss."

"I suppose you think that's you, then? How could you measure up to a digimon like me?" he asked me.

"Why don't you ask Fanglongmon," I said with a smirk. "You got the pink slip. He wanted to keep me. It's not my fault I'm too awesome to be tamed."

"Oh, you've got a mouth on you," Piedmon commented.

"A funnier one than yours," I said. And then I winced. That was terrible. "DemiVeemon, I'm not strong enough to do this on my own. I'm going to need your help. And maybe Takeru's too."

"On it!" DemiVeemon said, and he started glowing. He changed from DemiVeemon to Veemon, on to ExVeemon and finally to "**AeroVeedramon!**"

"Good to see you again buddy," I told him.

"Good to be back," he told me in his low, rumbling voice.

"Is this the cavalry?" Piedmon asked, sounding more amused than afraid.

"No," I said. "I'm Daisuke. And Ronald MacDonald called, he wants his outfit back."

_**Iori:**_

I was both horrified and thrilled, as bad as that sounds. Everyone was getting turned into key chains, which no one bothered to explain to me, and the final Dark Master was turning out to be too big of a challenge for us, but Daisuke had broke out of Fanglongmon's hold, and that was worth celebrating. He did it on his own. He wasn't faking like I was, and he didn't have the help of Phoenixmon like Ken did. He broke the enchantment because of his loyalty to his friends, which is something I hold with a lot of esteem.

The timing, however, could have been better.

Now, though, he managed to show some form of humility—by admitting he needed help—while still sounding like a cocky moron. We had just two ultimate level digimon against this one super-charged mega level digimon. But with the right amount of planning, we could do it. Unfortunately, planning took time. We didn't have time. And Daisuke was too excited to just wing it that he wouldn't have bothered if we did.

"What's this?" Daisuke said with a snort. "You mean clowns _can't_ learn new tricks? That's gotta be why your jokes are so stale, you can't be bothered to write new material."

"Why mess with the classics?" Piedmon asked.

"They've been around long enough," Daisuke started, signaling something to Takeru. "That you can tell where their weak points are. A good joke is new, it's fresh. And it doesn't involve key chains!"

"Or swords, I imagine," Piedmon said dryly. "Perhaps archery?"

"I'm not a big fan of archery," Daisuke said with a cheeky grin. "It has too many _drawbacks_. Get it?"

Daisuke laughed at Piedmon's outraged face. He didn't like Daisuke's…uh…_wit_. Instead of firing off another joke, Piedmon threw a white sheet. I watched, wide-eyed as Daisuke slid underneath it—much like Gennai had with that sword—and rolled out of the way.

"Like I said," he lectured. "You need some new material. You're act is dead. Give it up."

"New material," Piedmon said, his eyes flashing darkly. "I'll show you new material."

Takeru and MagnaAngemon were circling around him, and I couldn't grasp just what Daisuke had instructed them to do. AeroVeedramon was getting antsy, and Daisuke was really letting loose. Unfortunately, he was making Piedmon mad. And not the angry kind of mad. He was getting crazy.

"How about I strike at the very _heart_ of your little band of misfit survivors?" he asked coldly.

"I don't see how that's anything new," Daisuke said. "Now AeroVeedramon!"

AeroVeedramon started to fly forward, but Piedmon paid him no heed. He pulled a dagger out of his pocket, and raised his arm high. I went cold. I knew that dagger. Why did I know that dagger?

"Gate of Destiny!" MagnaAngemon called out. I risked a peek over at him and saw that he'd used his sword to open a gateway. A gateway Piedmon would surely get trapped in if AeroVeedramon hit his target. But the dagger drew me back again. And it was a good thing too. Piedmon was throwing it. And he'd aimed at Hikari. As soon as the dagger had left his hand, he was tackled by the giant blue dinosaur.

"Exit, stage left!" Daisuke shouted happily. "We did it!"

But I didn't stay to congratulate him. I was running. I had to stop it. It couldn't hit Hikari. I'd promised to protect her. It was just like my dream, and even though I'd never stopped a vision from coming true before, I had to stop this one. She had to live. She was just staring at the dagger, frozen in fear. I had to get her out of the way.

I'd promised the fairy queen I'd set free.

I didn't back out of my promises. To break a promise is to lie. And I couldn't do that…

But I had. Betamon had made me promise one thing in the entire time I'd known him, and I couldn't do it. All I had to do was ask out a girl. Something so simple, and I couldn't do it. And now he was gone. Destroyed by a friend no less. And I'd never done as he'd asked.

And chances were, I never would.

There wasn't enough time to get her out of the way. It was closing in faster than I could move. There was only one thing I could do to keep her from being hit. And it wasn't a move that would allow me to rectify past promises in order to honour a friend.

I put all the energy I had left into throwing myself forward. My feet slide across the shiny floor. I heard Takeru call out for Hikari, Daisuke had stopped his cheering.

"Iori!" Hikari screamed behind me, as I came to a stop directly in front of her.

And then the dagger hit, and all I knew was pain.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Alright. Arc 4 is over now, and it's time for the final stretch. Taichi and Yamato take the first chapter, as we deal with the now injured Iori? How will the digidestined survive this with Momoe going into labour at the same time? You'll just have to read to find out.


	43. A Little Miracle

**Y/N: **Woo. So we pumped out to major chapters in the past couple of days, and I'm pretty pleased by it. We're actually making progress, only seven chapters left to this story! The end is actually in sight now, things aren't going to be confusing or chaotic, and they're going to go much smoother— in theory anyway. I hope you enjoy this, your second Thanksgiving chapter—and accept our deepest thanks for giving us the inspiration that you do, and for reviewing so thoughtfully. You make writing this story—which we might've done anyway—worthwhile. Happy Thanksgiving! (In Canada anyway… :-P)

**U/N:** This one is more organized, it's sad. cool. stuff. happy thanksgiving, yada yada.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 4: United Front**

**Chapter 43: A Little Miracle**

_**Yuuko:**_

I slammed on the breaks as the car screeched to a halt in front of the large dome like building that held all of the people who were fighting the digimon.

There were a few digimon scuttling on the roof of the building. Yoshie threw open the door at the same time as I did, and we both hurried out of the car, leaving the doors open and running toward the building. Yoshie was holding a large box of our baked bombs running behind me. I reached the door first and threw it open, holding it for her. She hurried inside and I followed her.

I figured it would have been best to have the door locked or barricaded so the moment I closed the door I switched the lock and pulled a desk in front of the door to keep it open.

"Who are you?" A woman asked.

"Oh," Yoshie said, "I'm Yoshie Izumi."

"Well you can't be here." I turned to look at the woman. She was a rather plump woman standing next to a very handsome man of the same age. "We don't have room and there's no one we can trust."

"I'm saving my children so shut up." I shot to her.

"And who are you?" The woman asked.

"My name is Yuuko Yagami." I told her coldly.

"Yagami?" The woman asked, "Hi..kari...?"

"That's my daughter." I told her, ushering Yoshie along as she held her box.

"My son is Willis!" The woman exclaimed.

"Oh," I told her, "He's a nice boy..." It was true, he was, but there wasn't much else to say at that time, and so I continued trying to push past her, but she stopped me.

"My name is Mary, and this is Mr Washington, Michael Washington's father." She smiled at me, though I wasn't sure exactly who Michael was. "Are our children out there too?" She asked warily.

"Probably." I told her simply.

And in that second she and Mr Washington had pushed past us and were pushing the desk aside.

"Well... they're in a hurry." Yuuko said as the two of them hurried out the door and I reapplied the barricade.

"And so are we... let's go!" I told her quickly.

_**Jun:**_

My boyfriend was a jerk. Okay. So he wasn't really a jerk. But he _was_ reminding me that I had no idea where Otamamon was. And he totally agreed to be partners with this digimon that had tried to kill me. That was not winning him any boyfriend points.

Accepting Mantarou and Chiziru's help wasn't getting him any points either. They weren't actively doing anything. Haruhiko and I were the only ones keeping our eyes open for his wife—who I actually couldn't remember ever meeting, so I had no idea what she looked like—or our siblings. Shuu was talking with his new digimon partner, and Mantarou and Chiziru were singing a song. No. Not a song. A song implies that there was some sort of thought process going on when writing it. This was just improvisation. I knew that from the time I basically stalked Yamato Ishida. He spent a lot of time improvising with his band back then, because they only really had one song that was finished.

But Yamato's improvising sounded way better than this.

"Oh yeah! We're going to find Momoe," Chiziru sang. "And maybe Miyako too."

"Definitely Miyako too," Mantarou corrected while singing.

"But if they are in the middle of a demon battle we'll let them deal with it before we go to them," she continued.

"But probably not," Mantarou said. "We'll probably run the other way."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Chiziru sang.

Yeah. It was _that_ bad.

But it did make me feel like a better sister. Come hell or high water, I was getting my baby brother. No digimon battle was going to make me abandon him. I already felt like I abandoned him once. I couldn't do it again. My little brother wasn't even living at home anymore, and I wasn't there when he left. I could have helped him with whatever it was that made him leave. I didn't even know what it was though, so I couldn't help to fix it. I gathered it was something between our parents and him. But he was too stubborn to tell me, and our parents were too damn proud to admit to doing anything wrong. But they missed him. I could see it, because I missed him too.

"Is that her?" I asked loudly, so as to be heard over the singing. Haruhiko's head whipped to the passenger side to see the blonde woman I'd seen—one of the few braving the streets.

"No," he said. "I should probably give you some details."

"You think?"

"She's got dark hair," he said. "And she'll either look worried or strict. I'm not sure she really has any other functions lately."

"Right," I said. "A dark haired stick in the mud."

"That's my wife you're talking about," he said half-heartedly.

A dark haired stick in the mud…

"So, someone like her?" I asked, pointing to a ragtag group of people, dragging a ghost behind them on a string. There was a teenage girl, Yamato's father, a woman that I thought could possibly Daisuke's best friend's mom, and a dark haired woman.

Toshiko.

_**Taichi:**_

It was kind of tingly, kind of like waking up from a wonderful dream, granted there was nothing dreamlike or wonderful about what had happened. It also felt amazing to be able to relax my arms, to move them even the slightest amount. Also, it was kind of cramped. We were restored from being key chains, but they hadn't thought about size when doing the restoration. Plesiomon pretty much crushed everyone. I was glad when he remembered he could fly, and removed himself from on top of me.

It sucked big time, to know I'd fallen into the same old trick. If I had a nickel for every time I was a key chain, I'd have two nickels. _Two_. It's not a lot of money, but it was ridiculous that it'd happened twice. I wasn't going to be sharing that knowledge with anyone. Not that they'd believe me.

"Iori!" that girl…Natsuni Ando screamed. It was heart wrenching, and that was when I knew something went wrong. Maybe he'd been a key chain and had gotten cracked before he was turned back to normal. His arm or leg could be mangled pretty badly. But as I turned to see which it was, I realized it was worse than that. He was lying there on the ground, in a pool of blood, struggling to breath. There was a dagger in his chest that I would've ripped out in an instant, but Hikari was protecting it. I figured that meant it was a really serious problem. One that meant taking it out could be worse on him than leaving it there.

Natsuni flung herself down at his side, cupping his face, running her hand down his arm, staring at the dagger in both anger and anguish. "No. No. No, no, no. Iori you don't get to do this to me. You have to be alright. You _have _to."

Daisuke—clearly worried about her jostling the dagger—was trying to pull her back, away from Iori, but she was having none of it.

"Put me down, Motomiya! Iori, Iori, tell me you'll be fine," she demanded. "Tell me it's not as bad as it looks."

"You know he can't lie," Daisuke told her gently, still pulling her away. She was struggling against him, desperate to be next to Iori, but when the grief proved too much, she seemed to sag in his arms. She clung to Michael, who had come up to give Daisuke a hand, sobbing loudly, crying into his shirt. He tried to comfort her—he'd been through the pain of losing his best friend recently, but it wasn't the same. His best friend was in an egg under his arm, while hers wouldn't be coming back. The Goblimon—who I'd still received no explanation for—moved over to help Michael.

"Help him," she cried. "Someone has to help him!"

This desperate plea only served to be the breaking point for Noriko, who fell to the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she cried for the boy she stalked.

"We can't do anything about the dagger," Daisuke told the room. "We pull it out, and he'll be bleeding even more. We aren't doctors, we don't know how to do this without making it worse."

"We understand that," Sora said, but she was crying too. She was trying not to of course, but she couldn't hold back all of the tears. There were a few escapees that trailed down her cheeks, and her voice wasn't as strong as it usually was.

Miyako was distraught enough to allow Ken to hold her. She was trying to decide between panic and full out tears. Ken was trying to keep her from falling apart, but he was having the same problem himself.

"It's my fault," she was saying. "He didn't believe me. He said they were unbeatable. He saw that I beat Machinedramon. He gave up on them. He fired them. Piedmon did this in revenge."

"He was going to try to get me either way," Hikari told her. "This isn't your fault."

"Why does he want you so bad?" she cried.

"He wants my light," Hikari said, though her voice cracked.

"I have your light," Angewomon told her. "It should have been me. Not him."

"_Should_ have, _could_ have, _would_ have," Willis said. "We can't change the past. This has happened. What are we going to do about it?"

"There's nothing we can do!" Takeru screamed at him. He was crying almost as badly as Natsuni. He was a complete mess. His hands were shaking, his face was bright red. He wouldn't look at anyone or anything other than Iori. "It's up to him. He has to do this on his own now."

Gennai started pacing, Piximon shuttered at the same time Iori drew a long shaky breath, and reverted to Ankylomon, and Miyako broke away from Ken, running over to the fallen boy.

"What am I supposed to tell your mother," she demanded. "She only lets you leave the house because I swore you'd be protected. What do I tell her?"

"'snot your fault," he said in a strained and broken voice. It was so quiet, but everyone was holding their breaths, desperate to hear him speak. "Tell 'er I went like dad. Not t'worry. May'be I'll see dad."

"No you won't damn it," Takeru shouted at him. "You're going to survive this. I can't lose you too!"

I didn't have a chance to learn just who else Takeru had lost, because Hikari was scolding Iori.

"You shouldn't have done that," she said, kissing his face—his cheeks, his forehead, even his nose, trying to show him just how much she cared—while trying to look stern with tear stained cheeks. "It was meant for me. I should be the one lying on the ground now. I—please, why?"

"To pr'tect you," he moaned. "Like I pr'mised."

"You said you'd protect me from my sickness," she cried.

"Ne'er been the sick'ness. Always b'en this," he corrected her.

Mimi and Hikari broke down at that point, and Sora stopped pretending, letting the tears fall freely. Daisuke was struggling to keep it together, hearing all of the girls and Takeru sobbing around him. I was having trouble myself, but Hikari needed me to be the strong one right now. And I'd have to be it.

Iori didn't seem to think he had much of a chance of surviving. He sounded like he was giving up. Ankylomon reverted back to Armadillomon, scaring everyone. Koushiro was helpless to comfort Mimi when he was crying softly over his little protégée. Willis was juggling two crying rookies. Michael was looking to his egg, Ken stopped trying too, and was crying to himself, and Yamato was a little distracted. I figured he was trying to figure out who else Takeru had lost, and was worried that he'd missed something big, someone close to him maybe.

I felt like a horrible human being, as I wondered whether I should be glad that Iori protected Hikari. On one hand, Iori was just a kid. It was _my_ job to do what he just did. He was just in the right place at the wrong time. But he saved Hikari. I couldn't wish that he hadn't done it. She was everything to me, and I would be worse than Takeru and Natsuni if things were turned around. I wasn't happy though, looking at Iori. I kept wondering why I'd never gone out of my way to talk with him. Or why I didn't know what his favourite colour was. It seemed so inconsequential, but I felt like a terrible friend for not knowing it.

Armadillomon ran over to Iori, crying loudly. "Be strong Iori. You have to!"

He nuzzled his face, making Iori smile a painful little smile.

"I'll try," Iori said, closing his eyes.

"Stay awake," Armadillomon demanded. "Iori, do you hear me? Stay awake! Where is your doctor, where is Jou?"

"I—" Miyako said. Her eyes widening. She knew where he was.

_**Yamato:**_

"You?" Taichi asked, stepping forward, staring at Miyako. "You, what? You know where Jou is?"

She nodded frantically. "He... Yeah! Then... Momoe! And he..."

"He was trapped in a cave in with her sister." Noriko explained. She was sitting in a heap on the ground in the middle of the room, her face stained from her past tears. "It seemed tragic at the time... but honestly, if the cave in hadn't happened we'd _all_ be dead right now... Ladydevimon is still out there..."

"Who cares?" Mimi gasped, staring toward Iori, tears in her eyes as she clung to Rosemon who stood next to her. "Ladydevimon can wait—we need to do something about Iori!"

"No..." Iori said, gasping for air sharply afterword.

"No?" Mimi asked, shocked.

"No..." He nodded. "No ... hope."

"There is _always_ hope." Takeru and Hikari said together, both of them crying. Takeru more so. And that confused me. He had said that he didn't want to lose anyone else. Who else had he lost? MangaAngemon was standing in the room, back with most of the other digimon, all unsure of how to react, MetalGarurumon among them. I didn't have time to continue my confusion because I was pulled from my thoughts by a loud whimper.

I watched Armadillomon slowly shift to Upamon, the small white ball with wings on his head. "Iori... are you going to be... okay?"

Iori smiled feebly to his digimon but said nothing.

I looked away from them and toward MetalGarurumon who was staring at the ground. It felt weird even thinking about not having him there...

"What is he doing?" Taichi asked suddenly motioning toward Gennai who was pacing across the room. Everyone turned to watch him for a full minute, walking quickly from one end of the room, to the other.

"He does that while thinking." Hikari said suddenly.

"How do you know that?" Mimi asked, scowling at Gennai as if he was doing something very, _very_ wrong. She seemed to think that it was all his fault—that he had done this to Iori, but that wasn't the case—well not that I knew of... But judging by the club on the end of the sword, it was actually Piedmon who had done the deed, and not Gennai. I wasn't sure why everyone hated him so much. Sure he wasn't overly nice to us—trying to kick us out of the Digital World and everything. But then again, if we'd listened to him in the first place, Iori wouldn't be on the ground, suffering at this moment. So blaming Gennai was the opposite of smart...

"He told me." Hikari explained. "I've been walking and talking with him a lot since this adventure started... he told me that he likes to pace while he thinks. That's the only reason he's really been coming with us at all."

"I thought he wanted to protect us..." Koushiro said slowly.

"Well, yes." Hikari nodded, "Of course he did. But because most of you treated him like garbage he told me he wanted to leave, but since we'd been walking the whole time, he decided to come with us... because pacing helps him think. He would have protected us with his life anyway—and in fact, he did. Against Piedmon." She was clearly focusing her ranting toward Taichi and Mimi who both looked to each other and then off into the distance.

For some reason everyone other than Natsuni, Miyako, and Upamon was trying to focus on things other than Iori. I wanted to focus on him—I wanted to feel pain with everyone else, but my mind was buzzing—it was too busy. I hardly knew him... I wasn't even sure if I'd spoken to him since our tag team in the human world. Jou wasn't here, and I knew how close the two of them were—it was heartbreaking to think about Jou's reactions after he would see Iori... It just didn't seem fair. I felt a lump in my throat and my eyes beginning to sting so I looked away from him again.

"Iori..." Upamon said, tears starting to come from his eyes now, drawing everyone's attention toward him. I tried to keep looking away, but I knew I shouldn't. As I turned my head toward him I caught Sora's eye, she glared at me, wiping her tears before turning to Upamon. "I'm starting to think that you're lying to me... you're not going to live are you...?" For having just been in his ultimate form, Piximon, which I certainly hadn't expected, he seemed pretty brain dead... but at that, everyone seemed to burst into tears again.

Hikari was still resting Iori's head on her legs, shaking her head, crying. Miyako was trying to figure out how to hug the boy as he lay there, coughing now.

Ken cleared his throat, "I... kind of know some first aid—I—I had to learn it to work at the camp." He said, "Maybe I can help...?"

"If you can—" I tried.

"It's not safe." Sora interjected, sending me another glare, "If you fail he'll... he'll go faster. And there's not much chance right now."

"There has to be _some_ chance!" Willis growled.

"There is!" Michael said loudly as he and Goblimon clung to the sobbing and shaking Natsuni. She was losing her best friend! Just like Upamon... I looked to Taichi and saw that he was holding back tears, clenching his fists, and I couldn't help it anymore, and I started to cry. Losing Taichi... losing MetalGarurumon... I didn't know Iori too well, but I knew I would miss him... and I knew it was sad... and now I at least understood what it meant for him to go...

"And what's that?" Daisuke asked Michael, hopeful.

"I... don't know." Michael admitted. "But there's always a way... we just haven't thought of it yet." It was a well spoken statement, but was said at the wrong time. He had just built up everyone's hopes—including my own, just to crash them down again. Hikari and Miyako burst, once more into violent tears.

"This is your fault." I turned toward the quiet voice to see Takeru, his fists balled up. He was staring toward the other side of the room where a girl in a dark cloak stood, her hood up. She was staring down at the ground to the white and pink egg that Gennai had been carrying around. "If you hadn't done any of what you'd done... this wouldn't have happened." Takeru began storming across the room, his tears were gone, and in their place was a bright red, angry face. "You listened to Fanglongmon—you helped him—fed him information... you convinced us—Iori to join you, and then you failed. You failed at everything. And now Iori is dead—it's _your_ fault!" He screamed, now standing right next to her, holding her shoulders and shaking her. "It's your fault!"

"HEY!" Daisuke yelled, running toward Takeru, and ripping him away from Kurayami, sending all three of them to the ground. Kurayami landed separate from the boys, her hood falling off revealing that she, along with everyone else, was crying, and her eyes were blue again...

Daisuke and Takeru had begun rolling around on the ground, punching each other as hard as they could, both crying all the while.

"Stop fighting!" Sora screamed, tears pouring from her eyes.

All of this crying was really getting to me... as far as I could tell the last thing Iori would want to see was his friends fighting.

"It's not her fault!" Daisuke yelled. "It's _your_ fault! If you didn't have the goggles—"

Takeru threw Daisuke off of him, "Then _what_?" he growled, "You'd have them? What a great leader you are... leading us all to the dark side to help Fanglongmon destroy the worlds."

"He doesn't want to destroy them." Kurayami said loudly and defensively, her voice no longer deep and growling. She was back to normal it seemed... or at least partially. "He wants the digimon to be on Earth again. They used to be that way, but things changed."

"Things changed for a reason." Gennai shot, finally speaking, "Fanglongmon never understood why. But things changed, and the digimon needed to be banished from Earth. For everyone's safety."

"You think Fanglongmon cares about safety?" Kurayami snapped, causing both Takeru and Daisuke to turn toward her. "He wants you all dead. _All_ of you. I only stayed with him because I was scared of death!"

Gennai shook his head and returned to pacing.

"So it _is_ your fault!" Takeru yelled to her.

"NO!" It was Hikari who had yelled. "It wasn't her fault! It was _no one's_ fault!" She was still on the verge of tears, but was holding it back as she explained. "Iori had a dream! He had a dream about something that he never explained to me—but he wanted to protect me. This was going to happen no matter what, and he was always going to be the one to take the blow... he was always going to protect me. It was no one's fault. So stop pointing blame and stand as a group. Stand united at least for now. At least while Iori is here... Show him that you care, and show him that his sacrifice wasn't just for nothing."

"She's right." Taichi said nodding, "She's quite the little leader."

"Naturally." Daisuke laughed a little, "Having a brother like you." Daisuke and Taichi smiled to one another as Takeru walked toward Hikari and pulled the goggles over his head.

"I know this isn't the time for this..." Takeru said, putting them on Hikari as she held Iori. "But you deserve these more than anyone right now. You're the only one who has stayed impartial and you're constantly making these speeches that make people happy again... and I certainly don't deserve them. I went crazy... because of mom."

"What about mom?" I asked quickly.

"She's dead." Takeru said flatly and harshly. My entire world was literally ripped to pieces at that moment. That's who he had lost. Our mother. She was dead... gone. How had it happened? What had he done? Who had done it? I knew it had to have been Piedmon... it would explain Takeru's blood lust... but I couldn't stand it. I forced it from my mind instantly. I couldn't dwell on these facts at the moment.

"I don't want them Takeru." Hikari said, "Mimi already tried—"

"It doesn't matter what you want anymore." Takeru said. "It's what we all need. And we need a good leader. Someone like you."

"He's right you know." Willis nodded.

"I—" Hikari was cut off by the sound of a strange beeping. "What's that?"

"Digi...vice..." Iori said in a raspy voice as he reached into his pocket slowly and pulled out the small grey device. He handed it to Miyako who grabbed it with her shaky hands.

"What's wrong with it?" Sora asked stepping forward.

"Is it doing something?" I asked.

"Obviously." Sora snapped.

"It's..." Miyako said slowly as the beeping slowed down. "It's..."

"It's what?" Koushiro asked impatiently.

The beeping stopped entirely, "It's dead."

_**Taichi:**_

It was dead? What did that mean? I turned to look at Iori, and was relieved to find he was still breathing, however laboured it was. He wasn't dead. Just the digivice. Did that mean that he wasn't strong enough to support Upamon any longer?

I didn't have time to find an answer though, as the wall burst open. Now was _not_ the time for another digimon attack. We were regrouping. We were mourning. We were trying to and hoping and praying to find some way for Iori to get better before he went the way of his digivice.

"Stay back," Agumon told me, leaning on my suppressed courage to digivolve his way through the rankings until he was WarGreymon once again. "Let us deal with this. You take care of Iori."

"I will," I told him, watching as MetalGarurumon, Rosemon and Plesiomon joined him, while the other digimon held back. We were missing a few, but they weren't going to let whatever monster came out of there get to Iori.

As terrible of an event as it was, it was bringing us together, something we desperately needed.

"Get ready!" WarGreymon commanded. He raised his arms to charge up a Terra Force. MetalGarurumon was preparing his Metal Wolf Snout, Plesiomon was doing something involving water and his tail—I'd yet to really see him in action, so I couldn't even give a guess—and Rosemon raised a thorn whip into the air.

We all waited with bated breath, as a large drill came through. It was followed by the head of the digimon. The drill was acting in place of its nose. It was purple and white, and I was able to place it. It was a Drimogemon. But what a Drimogemon was doing working for Fanglongmon, I couldn't guess.

"We're through!" he cried happily, only serving to confuse me further.

"Oh excellent," came the very familiar and very British response.

"Hawkmon!" Miyako shouted. "Hawkmon, you found me."

"Miyako?" Hawkmon called, and he peeked around the edge of the hole Drimogemon had dug. "There you are. Momoe was quite worried, and so was I for that matter. She would like it very much if you came very quickly. She has managed to break her water. I'm not sure what that meant, but she has informed me that it is very important."

"Her water broke?" Miyako asked in a small voice. She looked to Hawkmon, and then back at Iori. "I c-can't. I have to stay here."

"She has instructed I be used for Christmas dinner if I do not bring you back," Hawkmon told her. But then he noticed Iori. "What has happened here?"

"There's no time for that," I said. "Just…bring us Jou?"

"He can't," Miyako said miserably. "Momoe's giving birth. Jou has to deliver it. He won't be able to leave his child, even if it _is_ this important."

"But, but," Takeru said.

"G…go," Iori said. "Go…see baby…for me."

"Iori," she sobbed. "I can't leave you. I can't. _They_ don't need me."

"Go," he insisted. "I c-can't, so you hav'ta."

"You have to hold on," she ordered him. "You _have to_."

"Miy-yako," he started to protest.

"No," she cried. "You have to wait for me. Just wait for me, okay?"

"I'll t-try," he forced out. She leaned down and kissed his forehead, whispering something to him that made him laugh. Well, he sort of wheezed out a short laugh before breaking into a coughing fit. She apologized hastily, and started to walk towards Hawkmon. She looked back though, every few seconds. It seemed as though she cried harder the further she got away from him. That was the moment I realized just how hard it was on her, more so than the rest of us. The two of them grew up together. She babysat him every day for years while his mother worked. She stopped when she reached the tunnel Drimogemon had made. She stared at Iori, debating whether to actually leave like she's told him she would.

"I'll go with you," Mimi said.

We all seemed to turn to her in one fluid motion.

"Don't look at me like that," she said defensively. "She won't be able to get to the baby. She can't leave the room. Look at her. And Jou. He'll want to know what's going on. Miyako won't be able to tell him. I'm going to do it for her."

"Hur-ry," Iori whispered. "Go."

"I'm sorry, Iori," Mimi said. "I'm sorry."

She took off at a run, with Rosemon tailing her. She grabbed Miyako's arm as she passed her and dragged her along with her. I was glad she did. If Miyako didn't leave, she wouldn't be able to come back. And making Iori hold on too long and hard would be worse on him.

"Oh no," Takeru cried.

"What now?" Tatum said sadly.

"Upamon," he said.

I turned to see Upamon encased in another light. When the light dispersed, a small, pale yellow ball was in his place.

"Tsubumon," Koushiro informed us. "He's at his base form. There's no further for him."

That had to be symbolic. I couldn't cry. It wasn't that I didn't feel like I needed to. I just couldn't. It was kind of like going into shock. Or an adrenaline rush or something. Nothing was really _real_ to me yet. Not anymore. Not since the digivice died, and now his digimon was as weak as it was possible for it to go. And Iori was lying there on his death bed. I didn't think he meant to hold on for Momoe to finish labour. There was no telling how long the baby would take to be born. Mom told me how it took her sixteen hours before I was born, and Dad claims it was even longer for Hikari. It was a wonder he was even conscious at the moment. There was no way he'd make it hours. Maybe minutes, but not much longer.

My eye twitched.

Gennai was _still_ pacing.

I didn't care if that was how he liked to think. He had to stop thinking. It was grating on my nerves, watching him pace there, ignoring how Iori was fading, dying because of the fight Gennai wasn't able to keep under control. Gennai and the Temple weren't able to keep Fanglongmon in his place. The Digital World needed us to do their job. And Iori was paying the price.

No.

Hikari was right. It wouldn't help to point fingers.

It _would_ help though, if Gennai would just stop pacing!

"Stop doing that," I snapped at him. I'd reached the end of my patience.

"Taichi," Hikari scolded me.

"No," I told him. "He needs to stop. It's making it worse. I can't think. I have to think. There has to be something I can do."

"Taichi," Yamato said gently. He was going to 'break it to me' that it was hopeless, but I wasn't going to listen.

"Just let me think," I shouted

"I am merely preparing myself," Gennai told me.

Talking to me was not helping me think.

"For what?" Hikari asked nervously, interfering with my chance to retort.

"I am proud," he said. "Of how far you have come since we first met one another. You are strong, independent people, but you work best together, leaning on the others for support. You must remember that no matter how bleak things seem, you must trust your friends, and keep the faith. Do not deviate as you have so many times. It is pertinent that the digidestined, like the crests, much work together to keep the balance. The balance cannot survive if your teamwork does not."

"That's all very flowery," Michael pointed out. "But our team's taking a major hit right about now."

Gennai took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly.

"I'm ready," he said. "It is time for us to share one final goodbye."

"No," Hikari said sadly.

"It must be done," he told her.

"But-but," she said.

"It is necessary," he said. "You will not change my mind."

"Can someone tell me what he's doing?" I demanded.

"He's," Hikari started, but it was cut off when she gasped.

Gennai had taken a firm grip on the sword that impaled Iori, and pulled it sharply upwards.

I watched in muted horror as Iori let out a mangled scream.

_**Yamato:**_

"What are you _doing_?" Taichi shot to Gennai angrily as the sword was tossed across the room where it hit the ground and shattered into a million pieces. "HEY!" Taichi growled, "I'm _talking_ to you!"

"Taichi," Gennai said as he stared down at Iori, "I sincerely hope for your sake that one day your impatience will prove to help you. Otherwise you are in for a lifetime of strife and punishment. And yes, that was meant as an insult." I stopped any crying that I had still been busy with and snorted, holding in my laughter as Taichi stared aghast toward Gennai.

"Gennai..." Hikari said, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"I've known you all for such a long time." Gennai said, placing his hand on Iori's wound. "And you are the closest to a family that I have ever had. And it hurts me to say this... but goodbye digidestined."

Suddenly Gennai's hand lit up like a light bulb, glowing brilliantly.

I heard Iori let out a loud gasp as the light became brighter.

"What's going on?" Koushiro asked loudly, shielding his eyes like the others.

"He—he's taking Iori's wound." Willis explained. "Just like he did with Hikari..."

Soon the light was much too bright to for me to keep my eyes open any longer and I had to not only close them, but throw my arms up over my eyes. My heart was pounding, the room was getting brighter and brighter, Sora and Hikari were sobbing uncontrollably and Iori was gasping for air... everything was happening so fast...

And then the light was gone.

Slowly I opened my eyes, though at first everything seemed wrong and disorienting, soon I was able to make sense of what was in front of me. There was a pile of dust, swirling through the air around Iori who was breathing heavily, his head still resting on Hikari's lap.

"I—Iori...?" Hikari asked, crying over the departed Gennai. "Are you... okay?"

Iori slowly sat up and winced a little before looking around and resting his eyes on Hikari. He nodded slowly and there was a collective sigh of relief. It was literally like the entire world had just stopped moving and taken to turning the wrong way...

Although it was such a happy turn of events, it was still sad. Very sad actually. We all turned to Hikari who cried silently into her arms. Iori hugged her gently before pulling away to let her cry. None of us were really close with Gennai, though he was always there... and when he called us family it was... it was like I had let him down, not getting to know him well enough... and he was gone now... just a blowing pile of dust...

And to add to the unpleasantness of the situation, I was extremely tired and was going to have to get some sleep soon enough, Fanglongmon was still out there, though Piedmon seemed to be some sort of climactic we-all-just-came-together battle, and it felt like the end... it felt over. But I knew it wasn't. And finally, Sora. She hated me. I hadn't... even gone over to the dark side—I heard Fanglongmon and was interested in what he had to say, but I never switched sides or anything... but she hated me for even considering it, which I supposed she reserved the rights to do when I promised her I wouldn't go... But I wanted her to forgive me...

Perhaps, now that Iori was alive again I could set him after her so he could convince her for me...

But I knew that would be cheating. I'd need her to honestly forgive me on her own accord... and I wasn't sure that would ever happen.

But all of that seemed to fade away as I watched Iori smile down to his digimon. Just moments ago I had thought that he would never smile again—that he'd be dead at a moment's notice, but here he was, hugging the small bouncing ball of energy, and the two of them laughed for a moment.

And then soon Iori had worked his way to a very wide eyed Natsuni. He wrapped his arms around her awkwardly and then soon everyone was hurrying toward him. Noriko was first, and then Sora and Takeru, and then Koushiro, Taichi and I, and finally Willis, Michael, Daisuke and Ken. Iori looked to Kurayami for a moment, but made no gesture to greet her. It seemed wrong to be celebrating Iori's revival—but at the same time... it was right. It made sense—it was a good thing! But every time I thought of Gennai I realized how awful it was to be happy.

There was a beep and Iori turned around quickly to look to the ground where his digivice was lighting up. He smiled and picked it up. "I suppose... it's back... to normal." He said.

"Everything's back to normal." Tatum smiled.

"Not everything." Hikari said solemnly.

"I think Gennai wanted us to be happy Hikari." Sora said smiling gently. "He wanted us all to be united, to be together because that was what the world needed, that was what would make us happy... and we can't let his sacrifice go to waste."

"But it's my fault." She said flatly.

"It's not your fault." Willis shook his head and hurried to sit next to her. "It's like you said, it's no one's fault."

"No, I was wrong." She said, "The knife was coming to me... I could have moved—if I had... then none of this would even be a problem. None of it!"

"Hikari, you can't blame yourself for that." Koushiro said, "We can all turn the blame on ourselves. For example, if I hadn't been standing where I had been, then I wouldn't have been turned into one of Piedmon's play toys at that moment and perhaps the entire battle's outcome could be turned around. Perhaps Gennai would still be standing here."

"But he wasn't." Daisuke said simply, "What happened, happened. And we can't change it." Daisuke reached his hand out to help Hikari to her feet. "But we can be grateful that we have a friend like Gennai to be there and save the day one last time." Hikari took Daisuke's hand and he pulled her up.

She threw her arms around him and hugged him. "I missed you Daisuke." She said to him quietly, "It's good to have you back."

"I'm not so sure he is back." Taichi said nervously. "Though I can't blame him—or Kurayami. It's not them. It's Fanglongmon. We have to get him and destroy him."

"Oh I'm not under his control anymore." Daisuke said, hugging Hikari back. "At least not now... though I think I may just try fighting him a little harder in the future... If Gennai just sacrificed himself to keep us united as a group, then I'll honour his wishes."

I smiled to him, as everyone else seemed to. I scanned the others and smiled... even though we were missing three of our number, and Kurayami was sitting by herself, curled in a ball, her thick hood pulled over her head, we looked more like a group now than we ever had.

I caught Sora's eye as I scanned the group and smiled at her only to receive a glare in return. Perhaps I'd spoken too soon...

_**Taichi:**_

I was miserable. I'd yelled at him. That was the last thing I'd ever said to him. And to make matters worse, I was _glad_ it was him and not Iori. It made me feel like less of a human being, to be happy that someone died. No. That wasn't it. I wasn't particularly pleased that Gennai was gone. I was just happy that Iori didn't die.

It made it hard to do his memory justice when it was overshadowed by the thrilling miracle of Iori's recovery.

I was such a bad person.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Hikari told him for the third time already.

"He shouldn't have done it," Iori said. "I'm not angry that he did. There's a big part of me that is happy he thought enough of me to do it, but he shouldn't have. No life is worth more than your own. Each life is precious, and equal. And he threw his away for me."

"Don't think of it that way," Yamato told him. "Gennai devoted his life to the Digital World and his work with the digidestined and the crests. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he didn't do everything in his power to keep them going."

"I just," Iori sighed. "I feel like I'm living on borrowed time. We have to do everything we can now. Fanglongmon has to go down, for Gennai."

"He will," Takeru declared.

"I won't live with regrets anymore," Iori added.

There was a scuttling noise echoing throughout the room, accompanied by this weird buzzing sound. It had to be the single most annoying pair of sounds I'd ever heard in my life. I wanted to believe that it was small, and not powerful, and not out to destroy us, I really did. But we had to prepare for anything. WarGreymon seemed to be thinking on the same wavelength. He held his head cocked, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.

He found it.

He took off, flying at the source, his claws held out in front of him, ready to tear it apart…

…and almost couldn't stop himself when he realized just who he was attacking.

"Stop!" Wormmon shouted.

"Don't hurt us!" Tentomon agreed.

"Sorry," WarGreymon said sheepishly.

"Tentomon," Koushiro said in relief. "You're not angry anymore."

"I don't even remember why we were fighting," Tentomon told him.

Ken and Wormmon had a quieter reuinion.

"Look at that," Daisuke exclaimed. "Everyone's together again. Ken has Wormmon, Koushiro has Tentomon and I've got my sister's 'Fish' and the most awesome digimon in the world, AeroVeedramon."

"I'm not a fish Daisuke," Otamamon insisted fondly.

Iori laughed softly, reminding me of something I needed to do.

"Let's go for a walk," I told him. He looked up at me confused. Why wouldn't he. We _never_ talked. And I was going to rectify that. "Not a long one."

"Okay," he said, standing carefully and walking slowly over to me. "What do you need?"

"I don't know," I told him. He nodded and waited patiently for me to speak. "Did your life flash before your eyes?"

He chuckled. "No. Just things I didn't do. Broken promises, dreams I debated but never really did anything about. I want to 'grow up', you know? Be something that can make a difference, like my dad. I thought about him a lot. And Mom and Grandpa and Meiyomon, and how they wouldn't be here and that I was technically dying alone. I spent so many years devoted to hating the concept of love and the idea of depending on someone so completely. To be willing to do anything for someone just to feel loved. I hated that. But I almost died, and I spent so much time thinking about how I'd never get married, or have a family. To get to be the kind of dad that was taken from me, you know? It all still seems kind of horrible, but I don't think I _hate_ it anymore."

"That's good then," I said awkwardly. He shouldn't have had to have had this revelation at all. He was just a kid. Well, no. He wasn't such a kid anymore. I'd never really acknowledged how much he'd grown. He was the youngest, so he was always just a kid to me. He was sixteen though. Not an adult yet, but getting there. I should give him more credit. "Thanks, by the way, for saving my sister, even though you should've just tackled her out of the way."

"I was going to, but there wasn't enough time," he said. "I had to protect her. I promised I would." He started wobbling a little bit, and grabbed onto my arm to steady himself.

"Be careful Iori!" Noriko shouted.

"Damn," he muttered. I was shocked. Yeah, he was sixteen, I was totally acknowledging that now, but I'd never heard him swear before. "That's another promise."

"One that flashed before your eyes?" I asked him.

"Unfortunately," he said looking at Noriko with a mix of distress and loathing. "The things I do for Betamon."

I laughed, as he grimaced at the thought. But realized this was something he had to do no matter how much he despised it. Betamon had died, and this was his way of honouring him.

"Do what you've got to do then," I told him.

"Maybe in a bit," he said. "I need to sit down, and Hikari looks like she's going to hunt me down if I don't get back over there."

"Yeah," I said. "You don't want to see her when she's angry."

"She's scary," he agreed.

As he hobbled his way back to my little sister, I remembered something.

"Hey, Iori?"

"Yeah, Taichi?" he asked.

"What's your favourite colour?"

"Yellow," he said with a wry smile. "Couldn't you tell? I'm such a happy person after all."

I laughed at his sarcasm and was finally able to take a moment to relax. Even though we'd lost Gennai, he'd given us one last gift. We were together again now, and we couldn't take that for granted again. We had to do everything we could to keep it that way.

_**Yamato:**_

I stood by myself, waiting for something to happen... No one was talking to me. Taichi had stood next to me for a while, but eventually left my side. I couldn't help but think about the others and how I'd screwed up again. I'd joined Fanglongmon without even remotely turning evil... what did that say about my loyalty? My sense of honour—or even friendship?

"This is my fault." Kurayami said suddenly, bringing everyone's attention toward her. We all watched as she stepped slowly and carefully toward us. "Takaishi was right. It's my fault."

"No it's not!" Willis told her quickly, "Tell her Takeru—tell her it's not her fault."

"Don't tell me what to do." Takeru said calmly before turning to Kurayami, "But Willis... is right. It's not your fault. It's no one's fault."

"If it's anyone's fault, it's mine." Iori said nodding.

"That's not true." Hikari shot. "Everyone needs to stop trying to take the blame."

"There's always someone to blame." Kurayami said slowly, staring at the ground.

"Then we'll blame Piedmon!" Taichi said suddenly.

"Yeah!" Daisuke agreed, nodding to Taichi, "He _was_ the one who threw the knife after all."

Kurayami shook her head. "No." She said.

"I don't know you very well," Koushiro said stepping forward, "But if my hypothesis is correct, then dwelling on dark emotions will leave more room for Fanglongmon to take a hold of your mind."

At the name of her past master Kurayami looked up sharply and glared at Koushiro her eyes flaring for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Koushiro asked nervously. Sora reached forward and grabbed Koushiro's arm and dragged him back to stand next to Tatum and Noriko.

"What's she doing?" Michael asked nervously.

"Plot twist!" Natsuni said in awe, "She was the real villain all along!"

"This isn't a movie!" Noriko shouted before anyone else could. This was serious—if Fanglongmon was still in control of Kurayami as much as he was then none of us were safe...

"It's okay!" Daisuke yelled. "KURAYAMI!" She was literally floating off of the ground at this point, just an inch, but still. Her hair was flying like mad, which was terrifying as it was so long, and her eyes were flaring, like the pupil had covered everything, including the whites, and as she slowly opened her mouth she let out a loud, high, blood curdling scream.

"Kurayami!" Hikari squeaked in fear, reaching to Kurayami's shoulder, but as she made contact her hand was thrown back and Hikari was flung backswords toward the ground. Willis was quick to help Hikari, pulling her into a sitting position and asking if she was okay, but she ignored him. "Kurayami you have to stop this!"

But it was no use. She was now over a foot into the air, screaming loudly, her hands clutching the side of her head tightly.

"Not to point blame or anything," Ken said pointedly, "but this one is Koushiro's fault." This earned him a well placed glare from Koushiro.

"Someone stop her!" Otamamon cried out. "It's really scary!"

"I don't know how!" Daisuke cried out, throwing his hands up to grab her hand. As he grabbed her hand it seemed like an intense force was trying to pull them apart but he held on as tightly as he could.

And then... there was crying.

Kurayami's eyes faded instantly and she fell to the ground, her screaming stopped. Daisuke caught her weight before she could fall into a heap on the ground, though her eyes were now closed.

I looked suspiciously to where the crying had come from and couldn't help but smile as my entire body began to tingle with excitement.

Miyako was standing next to Mimi, in her hands was a small bundle of clothes, which could only mean one thing.

"It's the baby!" Sora squealed running toward them, unable to conceal her excitement as the two girls smiled down at the child. Michael, Tatum, Taichi and Iori (with the help of Michael and Tatum) ran quickly to see the baby. The most unusual to me was Taichi, he didn't seem like the type to like children in all honesty.

"Interesting..." Koushiro said.

"What's interesting?" Willis asked.

"The baby's cries stopped Fanglongmon's hold on Kurayami." He explained, his finger tapping his chin as he thought.

"What does that mean?" Tentomon buzzed.

"It means that babies are innocent and can cut through dark magic." Ken filled in.

"That's too simple... it must be something to do with innocence... but perhaps more than that..." Koushiro said, "Perhaps it was something to do with bonds and connections. Like the crests—perhaps something as simple as emotion, or even love would cut through the darkness."

"How would love cut through anything?" Ken asked, disbelieving in Koushiro's theory.

"Love is dangerous." I said watching as Miyako handed the child over to Sora gently as Takeru dragged Hikari over to see the child. "A simple action can cut so deep... it can destroy someone from the inside out."

There was a silence after that until Koushiro said, "I was thinking a simple kiss." He said, "A simple kiss would show the love and break the darkness."

"That too..." I agreed solemnly.

"Momoe!" It was Natsuni who had spoken. Everyone turned sharply to see a very exhausted Momoe being carried by Jou who was no longer wearing his sweater that had been used to wrap the baby in. Jou was happy I could tell, but was not smiling. "Is she okay?"

Jou nodded as he gently set her down, leaning her against the wall. "She'll be fine." Jou said down next to Momoe and sighed with relief as Hawkmon and Rosemon entered the room through the hole that the Drimogemon had dug. "The baby is fine... Momoe's fine... everything is fine..."

I could only imagine how hard it must have been on the two of them... giving birth to a child in the home of the most evil digimon who ever lived while having not slept in two straight days... it couldn't be worse really... but it was over now, and Momoe was hugging herself, wrapped in her thick sweater and in Jou's arms.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Hikari asked Sora who was holding the baby.

"It's... a girl." Miyako answered stepping toward Sora. And smiling down at the baby.

"What's her name?" Sora asked.

"They haven't named her yet." Mimi filled in, "So right now, I've taken to calling her Sugarplums, or Cupcake. I haven't decided which one is cuter yet..."

"I vote we call her Sparky." Takeru joked and everyone started laughing with him.

Iori slowly moved his way toward Jou and Jou looked up to him and smiled, letting go of Momoe and jumping to his feet to hug Iori. "I'm really sorry I wasn't here Iori..." He said quietly, but everyone could still hear. "I should have been here—but I couldn't leave Momoe..."

"I understand." Iori said, laughing lightly and pushing Jou off of him, "But... we have some serious talking to do..."

"You ... still want to do that?" Jou said.

"Every Saturday at seven o'clock." Iori nodded flatly. "Every week."

Jou smiled at him and hugged him again, "Then I guess I'll be there."

Plesiomon floated slowly toward Jou as he began to glow, shifting back into Gomamon as the other digimon did the same, reverting back to their rookies. "Jou..." He said slowly. "Jou, I'm really hungry."

"Well we can go get food now." Jou said, looking around to everyone, "I think we could all use some."

"And Jou..." Gomamon said softly. "If you... have Momoe now... and Iori... and that baby... do you... still have time for me...?"

"Of course." Jou said quickly, bending over to pick up Gomamon. "You're never leaving my side. I won't let you." Gomamon seemed pleased with this answer and nuzzled closer to Jou.

Miyako slowly took the baby and headed toward Momoe giving me the first sight of the baby itself. It was literally the cutest thing ever. Its eyes were closed as it slept soundly, and usually new born babies were red and puffy and... ugly—but not this one. For some reason she was cute... so... cute.

As Miyako handed Momoe her new daughter a large figure emerged from the darkness of the tunnel. Takeru, Hikari, Taichi, Iori and Jou jumped back in alarm as Mimi and Miyako were pushed gently out of the way. It was a Monzaemon who carefully stepped around us all and sat against the wall near Momoe looking down at her and her baby without saying a word. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be creepy or comforting.

But soon other digimon were following suit, coming through the hole. I recognized some, but not others, but Noriko certainly seemed to recognize one of them.

"IMPMON!" She squealed excitedly, "Impmon! IMPMON!"

"No...riko?" the small purple imp like digimon asked as his partner hugged him tightly.

Everything seemed happy suddenly. We were all together again, most of us with a digimon partner, Jou had a baby, and Kurayami was coming around again... but Gennai was gone... and so was my mother.

Tatum, Noriko and Natsuni hurried toward Momoe as I felt a tug on my sleeve. I looked down to see Gabumon and smiled at him.

"You're back..." We said together. We both smiled and looked around to the others whose digimon were all hurrying toward them. Taichi took Sora's hand lightly and led her, Agumon and Biyomon toward Koushiro, Tentomon, Willis, Terriermon, Ken, Wormmon, Gabumon and I. Miyako, Mimi, Hawkmon and Palmon were next, coming toward us as we gathered in a group in the middle of the room. Takeru and Hikari hurried to help Iori as Jou walked toward us with a limp, Gomamon in his arms as Armadillomon followed behind. Patamon and Gatomon were smiling to each other from the tops of their partners heads. Michael was next, hurrying toward us after having collected his digiegg and the one Gennai had left behind. And finally Daisuke walked toward us now, hand in hand with Kurayami who was using him for balance, Veemon running behind them... We were all together again.

"Fanglongmon..." Kurayami said slowly, "Needs to die."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** the fifth and final Arc takes off with this big chapter, and leads into Momoe, Willis and Yamato as they take their first steps towards Fanglongmon's—and ultimately Dragomon's—destruction.


	44. Keeping Safe

**Y/N: **So... this is the first chapter I've had to relax in a while. I was only Momoe in this one, and it was very refreshing to not have to write two or three parts, switching points of view. I am, however, excited for my next chapter, despite it involving a fair bit of swapping P.O.V's. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and maybe leave a review? Thanks!

**U/N:** I feel the need to apologize for two reasons here. 1, It is late... I'm sorry. And 2, It's not very well written—specifically Willis's part... because I rather enjoyed writing Matt's part—anyway... I hope you like it and review.

Also, my sister suggested we tell you... guys... stuff. Uhm, she didn't, so I guess I will? Hikari was the one who was originally supposed to get hit by Piedmon's blade, but then I kind of came up with a cool thing where Iori would be the protector—and... anyway, a lot of things had to be changed to suit this, so just... stick with us here... it should all work out—but... yeah. Ahem... review?

**Title:****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 44: Keeping Safe**

_**Momoe:**_

Everyone was talking around me, planning, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I didn't hear a lot of it. I understood that we were leaving, hunting down Fanglongmon, and that it was that creepy girl's idea, but it didn't matter to me. I was exhausted. I'd been stuck in a cage for at the very least a day and a half, I wasn't sure on the specifics. After the twenty-four hour mark, I stopped paying attention. Or I wasn't awake enough to pay attention anyway.

And now I'd just given birth.

I did not care what they were planning. I just wanted to hold my baby in my arms, and look down at my little miracle, never letting go. Jou would have to fight. I understood that. But I could tell he wanted to be doing the same thing. He didn't want to leave our precious daughter behind. But we couldn't take her into the battle as well. And what good would I be in that battle anyway? I couldn't stand, or at least not very well. There was no damn way I was leaving my little bundle of joy behind where anyone could attack her and whoever I chose to watch over her. I didn't want to miss any of her life. And if I did that, heading into battle with Jou, there was a chance I'd miss all of it.

On the plus side, I was pretty sure Jou mentioned going to get food. I was hungry, really hungry, starving almost. And it reminded me that our little girl was going to need to be fed soon. But Jou didn't look like he was ready to give her up quite yet. I'd give him a few minutes before I fed her. Miyako _had_ been the first to hold her for any length of time after all. Not him.

Therefore, it surprised me when he handed our baby girl off to Iori—who was no longer wearing his own shirt. I thought I'd seen that on someone else when I'd been captured…but I couldn't remember just who's it was. That's right, I remembered. Iori had had an 'accident' as Mimi put it. Something that involved a lot of blood.

"Careful with her head," Jou cautioned him. Iori looked like a deer in the headlights as he carefully positioned himself. "There we go. You can relax a bit. She's not going to bite. She doesn't have any teeth yet."

Iori looked down at her in awe. "She's so tiny."

It sure hadn't felt that way when I was pushing her out!

"She's actually around average size for a newborn," Jou said.

"Hi there," Iori said to my daughter—I just loved thinking that. "I'm Iori Hida, it's nice to meet you. I didn't think that I would get to." A lone tear made its way down his cheek. How bad had his little 'accident' been? Jou and Mimi had been talking in hushed tones, and Miyako had demanded we bring our little girl back to the others as fast as possible. She hadn't even let me rest first. She said it was important that someone meet her. I supposed now it was Iori.

"Miss Momoe," Monzaemon said at my side.

"Yes, Monzaemon?" I asked him.

"You look tired," he commented.

"I am," I told him.

"I can help you," he said.

"What? How?"

"I just have to 'attack' you," he said simply. "May I?"

"I don't know…"

"Hearts Attack!" he shouted. I closed my eyes tightly, too tired to even manage a scream—and it would scare the baby too.

"Hey," Jou shouted, clearly not on the same wavelength as me, and making our baby girl cry.

Instead of being ripped apart like I expected, I was engulfed in what appeared to be a large, red heart. When it surrounded me, all my fatigue, all my worries, everything just melted away to be replaced with euphoria and though I couldn't get out of the heart on my own, Monzaemon released me.

"Are you better?" Monzaemon asked me.

"I feel great!" I shouted. "Give me my baby, Jou. She's hungry, and you scared her. It wasn't you little Iori."

"I'm not little," Iori scowled half-heartedly.

"You plan our next move, I'll feed the baby, and then we'll leave," I instructed them. Whatever Monzaemon did to me, I felt absolutely amazing. Like I'd just slept for days and had tons of extra energy.

"We could become partners," Monzaemon suggested, as the others decided where they were going to eat. There was talk of whichever fast food place was closest, and I decided that got my vote.

"We could," I agreed. "You are fun. You're a great teddy bear, and I have a baby. And babies like teddy bears."

"That is good reasoning," Monzaemon said so seriously that I had to laugh. I was thrilled—though it might have been his random happy heart talking—to have been considered for a digimon to want me as a partner. I was nursing a baby at the time, so it was a little bit awkward, but I was kind of excited anyway. "I will give you your digivice when you are not doing whatever that is with the baby."

"Okay," I said with a laugh. It was easy at times to forget that digimon didn't come naturally. They weren't even born the same was as birds. Their eggs came from computer data, they didn't have parents, and they didn't have to give birth or nurse their young.

"It's decided!" Daisuke shouted happily, while still supporting the creepy girl. "Let's go eat!"

I was happy enough to oblige with that order, having finished feeding my baby for now. Monzaemon decided he would carry me, despite making me feel fantastic already. And I still had my baby girl in my arms. Add food to the equation, and I'd say I was in heaven. You know, just a heaven that involved a scary demonic digimon with mind control powers bent on the destruction of all human life, and some aquatic demon king that Jou swears is a digimon inhabiting the waters, making escaping from Japan an impossibility.

_**Willis:**_

"This is ridiculous..." Terriermon said loudly to Lopmon as the two of them clambered on ahead of the rest of us.

It seemed, in Fanglongmon's escape he had caused a slight cave in, breaking out of his home by tearing the whole roof off.

We'd been walking through the fortress a while without running into any of his minions—perhaps there were none left? Though I knew that to be entirely untrue. Noriko had pointed out that Ladydevimon was still out there somewhere, and had seemed pretty frightened by the prospect, proving that Ladydevimon wasn't just another evil face—she packed some punch. Noriko didn't seem upset anymore though. She was off with Impmon, aside from the group. I was happy for her, having found her digimon even though I had no idea who she was...

That was starting to annoy me really... no one ever thought to include me in anything, or to fill me in at all. Apparently they'd had a few serious adventures without me, one of them including Apocalymon. I'd have liked to know that whole story before going in to fight him three years ago. And then the second one was going on around the time that I'd met them all... but still, I'd been fed no information about it. And then even last time—and this time! If I wasn't there I didn't get to know what was going on. No one wanted me to know, and no one would tell me. I was just supposed to guess...

Who was Momoe? That woman with the baby. Had she not been walking to closely with Jou then I wouldn't even know who the baby's father was. Or perhaps she was Jou's sister! No, the others had made it clear that it was the other way around... then perhaps she could have been Miyako's sister...? I was pretty sure Miyako had spoken about her sister at some point.

And then that Natsuni girl. There she was, walking with Iori. They were both laughing, but there was something awkward going on between them. What happened? And more importantly, who was she?

And the most important one of all... what the heck was going on with the army of digimon following us. No one thought to question that? 'Oh look, here's our baby and our new army of digimon. Surprise!'

It just didn't make any sense.

And Iori digivolved to Ultimate I saw... there was that pink ball thing I'd seen earlier. And not one person had anything to say about it. I mean, sure, Iori was dying at the time, but someone should have said _something_. As for me, I was pretty proud of him... and he was an amazing person, sacrificing his own life to protect Hikari. It was heroic and brilliant... but why had he done it? Some dream? So he can see the future now? He's a prophet? Does everyone _really_ not have any questions about that?

And all of the dark masters were defeated now. Hurray...? What about Machinedramon? Where had he gone to? Did he just fall over dead? Does no one care? How did that happen? And what happened on their way here that had gotten Mimi and Jou so riled up? At least I understood what happened with Sora and Miyako. They'd made it pretty clear... what about Takeru and Hikari though? Were they secretly dating? Were they avoiding me at all costs? I just didn't know. Well I did know. Hikari was next to me, holding my arm gently and walking with me...

And where was Dragomon. Last I checked, he was a pretty serious threat—trying to have babies with Hikari, and now no one had even thought to mention him in a while. Did I miss his destruction? And if so, why did no one tell me?

There were just so many unanswered questions that no one thought to even care about. Or maybe everyone knew the answers except for me.

Sure, I was only being snarky because I was tired, but I couldn't help it—I was trying to push it from my mind but that couldn't happen. It just wasn't working. I was too tired and exhausted to even care anymore... my mind was going to be mean, I'd just have to be sure that I didn't snap at anyone in particular.

But no one would blame me judging by the looks on all of their faces. Taichi was walking with Daisuke at the front of the group, talking with one another. They were talking happily, but I could practically feel the frustration coming from both of them. I wondered where the frustration was coming from... probably the goggles. They were still competing for them. I looked slowly toward Hikari and smiled. So far she was winning. She had the goggles...

Yamato was staring longingly toward Sora when not speaking softly with his brother, who was staring at the ground, sad. About his mother I assumed. And every time Yamato looked away, Sora would turn and glare. She knew he was watching her and she was not happy with him.

Jou seemed exhausted, but otherwise seemed rather happy with his new baby. But I knew there was something going on between him and Momoe. Something I didn't know about, and they were being rather awkward about it. Whatever, it, was.

Miyako was walking with Iori and Natsuni, laughing with them... but she would occasionally turn to watch Ken, clearly unsure of how she should be feeling. And Ken would smile at her, and try to win her over, but then she'd turn quickly away. And of course the awkwardness with Iori and Natsuni was still present.

Kurayami was walking at the back of the group, her hood up. She was upset about something, and I didn't even _want_ to try and figure it out. Michael was a little closer to the rest of us, holding the two fallen digieggs. I had no idea what the other egg was, but that wasn't saying much. I didn't really know anything.

Koushiro and Mimi seemed to be the only happy people... they were smiling with one another simply and saying nothing.

Ahead of us all were the digimon. And that's where I had planted my attention. Each of them was happy, exhausted and humorous. And so it was much more interesting to watch than the sulking people surrounding me... including me.

"This_ is_ ridiculous!" Lopmon agreed as they climbed the pile of rubble. I hadn't gotten to the pile yet but I knew it was going to be exhausting to climb.

Lopmon turned around to help pull Gabumon up to the next rock as Patamon, Hawkmon, Biyomon and Tentomon flew on ahead.

Terriermon waited impatiently for Lopmon as she helped Agumon up next. "You could try being helpful." Lopmon said to Terriermon, rolling her eyes.

"No thanks," Terriermon winked to her before receiving a death glare. He quickly rushed forward to help Veemon up. Palmon had Gomamon wrapped in her arm and was using her poison ivy technique to pull herself to the top.

Ken rushed past us all and scooped Wormmon into his hands, "You're going to need some help here," he laughed.

"Oh thank you Ken!" Wormmon sighed with relief. "I was scared that I'd be stuck down here to be honest..."

"You think I'd leave you here...?" Ken asked slowly.

"Not anymore." Wormmon said, resting himself in Ken's arms. It made me sad to think about the task ahead of us, but it was also sort of funny. I wasn't sure why, but the concept of watching everyone else climb this made me laugh.

"What's so funny?" Hikari asked me with a smile as she watched Gatomon leap from stone to stone.

"We have to climb this." I told her with a grin.

"Armadillomon has to climb this." She said, topping my statement.

"The army of digimon behind us has to climb it." I told her.

"Michael has to climb it with two eggs." She said.

"Momoe has to climb it with a sleeping baby."

"Okay," She said laughing, "You win—or rather... Momoe does."

And then we were climbing. Our digimon didn't bother waiting for us really, hurrying up the slope. I guessed that they were just really, _really_ hungry. Which I couldn't blame them for...

I looked back to see Jou helping Momoe climb. Michael had handed Gennai's egg to Kurayami for safe keeping while they both climbed to make it easier on Michael. Koushiro was helping Mimi, as Miyako Iori and Natsuni climbed nearby. The army of digimon was waiting at the bottom, behind Kurayami. I looked ahead again to see Daisuke and Taichi racing to the top.

"Is everything a competition with those two?" I asked Hikari.

She nodded, "Pretty much. Ever since I can remember both of them have been really competitive. I think that's why they like soccer so much, because they can compete with the others—and they usually win too, so that's just a bonus."

"Taichi is your brother," I said slowly, "But how long have you known Daisuke?"

"Since I started school," She said with a smile, "He was in my class. He led all the boys in the competitions against the girls. But I couldn't play. I was too sick. So it wasn't until I was nine that I actually talked to him. He wasn't a very nice person back then... I think leading the whole class got to his head."

"So he's not a good leader?" I asked her.

"No, no!" She said quickly, "That's not what I meant! He's a wonderful leader... now. But he wasn't. Not until I sort of... yelled at him and told him that he was being a mean person. And that was when I was ten... and then the next year at school he was laying out plans to become my best friend—and that was when Takeru came and joined my class..."

"So Daisuke didn't stand a chance." I noted.

"No, not that." She said with a smile and slight shake of her head. "Daisuke _is_ my best friend. He's so close to me that he's like a brother."

"I thought Takeru was your best friend." I asked her, my mind buzzing. If Takeru wasn't her best friend then what exactly were the two of them?

"He is!" She insisted, as she pulled herself over a large stone and then back to her feet. "So is Gatomon and Lopmon and Miyako and you and—"

"Those are all of your friends Hikari..." I pointed out.

"Yes," She said nodding, "I'm aware."

"But which one is your_ best_ friend?"

"I can't pick." She smiled. "I love you all." She then started climbing faster than me to avoid any further questions. It was cute of her to do that though... the way she seemed like she was so open, but would always "casually" walk away before the end of the conversation to avoid having to talk about it... it was one of the many things I adored about her...

Soon though, we were at the top of the pile of rubble. Taichi had grabbed my arm and pulled me the rest of the way to the top. We waited for Michael, Kurayami and the digimon, and when they were there we set off immediately.

We were in a dark hallway, and I couldn't see a thing, but Kurayami, who had pushed in front of us, clearly knew where she was going. She threw open a door that I would have thought to be a wall, and led us through to another room. She did this again and again, weaving through the chambers of Fanglongmon's palace, all the while not coming across a single evil digimon... which I found suspicious, until finally she pushed open a large round door and light from outside poured in fast.

Everyone turned sharply away, the light burning at our eyes.

Kurayami, however, just stepped over the threshold and out the door, without a second thought. She stood waiting for us all to follow her. The moment Michael stepped through the door she thrust the egg into his arms again.

"This is... the back exit." She said slowly, "Where is this food place?" She asked as Jou and Momoe stepped through ahead of us. Everyone was rushing to get out, so Hikari and I waited a moment to avoid the hustle and bustle at the door.

When we finally stepped out of the palace I gasped. It was like some wave of happiness had crossed over me. It was as if, inside the palace, I had slowly been turning into a demon. My mind had been so angry—so uptight and annoying, and it was now... happy.

"It's just two blocks away." Jou said with a smile.

"Two blocks?" Miyako asked, "Yeah right."

"Well he is correct." Iori said, "It is only two blocks—but we also have to get out of the forest."

"Damn." Taichi and Daisuke said as one.

"Luckily," Takeru said slowly pointing down the hill. "There's a bus that was left behind." We all turned to see if he was right.

I smiled in relief at the sight of the white and blue bus. Everyone hurried down the hill toward the bus without a second thought.

Jou was the first on board and he checked for keys which he found quickly. He turned them and smiled. "It works!" he exclaimed as the engine roared. Again, everyone was rushing to get onto the bus, so Hikari and I waited. Finally though we were allowed on. I found Gatomon, Terriermon and Lopmon waiting for us at the very back of the bus. I smiled at them and hurried down the aisle toward them.

"What about them?" Momoe asked, pointing out the window. She was sitting right behind Jou, her baby in her arms still. She was pointing at the army of digimon.

"Don't worry about us." The Drimogemon said, "You have done enough for us. You've saved us. Thank you."

"But—" Momoe tried.

"Until we meet again Miss Inoue." Monzaemon said with a smile as Jou hit the gas and sped off.

_**Yamato:**_

Jou stopped the truck sharply and I was flung forward in my seat.

"What the hell Jou?" Taichi growled. He was sitting in the seat across from me with Agumon.

"Perhaps we are here?" Gabumon asked.

"No, It's still a block and a half away..." I said. We'd already driven out of the trees, and were on the road which was littered with broken down cars and even trees. So I could only assume that we'd hit a road block.

"There's a woman." Jou said slowly. His eyes followed the woman as she walked toward the door to the bus. Jou slowly opened the door and watched, wide eyed as an angry woman climbed the stairs to the bus. Before I could even register who it might be, Willis had called out in surprise.

"Mom?" He gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry..." Tatum muttered from the seat behind me. Her digimon sitting next to her also. "That's my fault."

"No," Willis said, "I know you brought her to Japan—but Mom! You should be at the safe house!"

"I was!" The woman, apparently Willis' mother exclaimed. "But then Yuuko Yagami and Yoshie Izumi told me that you were out here playing games."

"I'm not playing games mom." Willis told her quickly, jumping to his feet. "You need to get back to the safe house. Now! It's not safe out here!"

"Exactly!" She said, her lips pursed. "Get over here. You're coming with me."

I watched with wide eyes as Willis tried to form words in his mouth. But nothing was coming. His mother was glaring at him in a way that all mothers knew how to do. It made me think of my mother... I smiled, remembering the time that Dad had tried to give me the look she always did. It just caused us all to laugh...

"Willis Robert Kennedy!" Mrs Kennedy snarled. "Get over here."

Willis looked back to Hikari who was biting her lip while trying to smile encouragingly.

"Mom, you don't understand." Willis said softly, "I—"

"No!" His mother snapped. "_You_ don't understand. I am your mother and you will listen to me. It's not safe for you to run around with a bunch of miscreant teenagers—and a baby!" She exclaimed upon sight of Momoe who smiled nervously and waved to her. "You need to come with me to the safe house. You said it yourself. It's not safe out here, and you are everything I have left Willis... I need _you_ to come with me."

"You misunderstood me," Willis said, "When I said that it wasn't safe—"

"You were correct in saying that." She said, her lips pursed. "You could die if you stay here. You need to come now... Come on Willis."

"Mom..." He sighed, "I can't come with you—I need to stay here. I need to stay because—"

He was cut off again by his mom who screwed up her face this time before speaking very loudly. "Because nothing. You will come with me or you will never be allowed out of the house again. You will be grounded for your entire life, and will never get to come see little miss Hikari again."

"It's my house..." Willis said under his breath.

"Excuse me?" His mother growled, "What did you say?"

"Nothing." He said, "Mom, just—"

"Just nothing! You will—" She was screaming now.

"Stop interrupting me!" Willis snapped.

There was a silence on the bus. As I looked around I could see that everyone else was feeling just as awkward as I was. This wasn't the place for this argument. I tried as hard as I could to busy myself by playing with my fingers, but there was no other sound and my ears didn't want to block it out. Gabumon moved nervously toward me.

"It's not safe for _you._" Willis said through gritted teeth. "I'm perfectly safe out here—well not _perfectly_ safe. I mean, I think I may have broke my ribs—but it's okay, Mrs Yagami fixed me up!"

"You _what_?" Mrs Kennedy barked. "See? This is what I mean! You think you're safe—you think you know everything but you don't! I know you're a genius Willis—but that doesn't mean everything around you becomes your playground. Just because you know about something doesn't make you safe."

She had a point... and also Willis was pretty stupid for bringing up his broken ribs which I hadn't even heard him mention before.

"I know mom..." He said, "But if _you_ knew, then you'd understand."

"Knew what?" She asked, her lips pursed and her arms crossed.

"About us!" Terriermon and Lopmon said together as they leapt onto Willis' shoulders.

"AAAARRGH!" Mrs Kennedy let out a mangled scream before freezing and looking around her, to all the other digimon. "They... live? They are alive?"

"Course we are!" Terriermon laughed.

"You didn't think Willis could do all those chores by himself, did you?" Lopmon asked.

"All this time..." She said, "I thought you'd gotten rid of those awful toys—creatures. Willis. Come to me now. Back away from those monsters. You're never to see them again."

"Well I'm going to have to disobey you." Willis said simply. "These are my friends. My _best_ friends."

"I don't care." His mother barked, "Come to me. _Now_."

"Willis..." Hikari said slowly, "Just go... we'll figure it out later... I don't want you to get into too much more trouble. We'll find a way to make her see."

"What are you saying to him?" Mrs Kennedy growled, "Making little plans? Well let me tell you—"

Taichi was standing suddenly and glaring at Mrs Kennedy. "You can argue with Willis all you want, but you can't take him away from his partners. And if you say one more word toward my little sister I will cut you."

Willis burst into laughter at that and then froze suddenly. He looked to his mother before nodding. "Terriermon... Lopmon. I gotta go."

"Willis you can't leave us again!" Lopmon said, tears in her eyes instantly. "I will miss you!"

"I know." He said, "I'll miss you too..."

"I'll miss you the most." Terriermon said hugging Willis' head. Lopmon quickly hugged the other side of his head.

"No, I'll—"

"Guys!" Willis said flatly. "Not right now, okay...?" He said. The two digimon nodded before jumping off of his head and allowing him to walk slowly toward his mother. She then grabbed his arm tightly before pulling him the rest of the way down the aisle. He waved nervously to Hikari before being dragged off of the bus.

There was a long and rather awkward moment where we all sat very still, and silent. Eventually though, Jou started the bus up again and pressed down on the gas. We drove slowly at first, passing Willis and his Mother. She had her arm tightly around his, leading him toward a rusted green gar at the end of the block where a man was waiting, holding the door open.

"Is that my dad?" Michael asked suddenly.

"Obviously..." Tatum said, rolling her eyes.

Michael sat down quietly and hugged his egg.

After a short while Jou had stopped in front of a large hamburger shaped building.

We all got off of the bus in silence. I looked to the sky as I descended the stairs and saw that the sun was setting. That could only mean bad news...

Soon we were all sitting down at a large table that Taichi and Daisuke had created by dragging multiple tables together.

"So when does the food come?" Otamamon asked.

"I hope soon..." Patamon sighed, "I'm really _very_ hungry."

"The food comes when we order it." Biyomon said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world—which it... was.

"I order food then!" Agumon shouted out to the skies.

"You have to order it from a waiter." Gabumon chuckled. I'd taken him out to eat before, pretending he was just a kid in a costume.

"Is a waiter another word for a clock?" Lopmon asked. "Like... waiting?"

"No, Lopmon!" Terriermon laughed, "It's like wading in the water. A wader."

"Do you see any water?" Lopmon hissed.

"I MISS WILLIS!" Terriermon began crying suddenly only to be elbowed by Lopmon. Both were sitting on Hikari's lap. I wasn't sure how she, or Willis for that matter, could put up with them so easily.

"A waiter is a man who will come and take our orders, then to return to the chef and instruct him upon what to make." Tentomon buzzed.

"Why can't it be a girl?" Gatomon asked, "What's wrong with girls? I like girls."

"A girl would be called a waitress." Wormmon informed them.

I wondered for a moment why no one was stopping them from this conversation, but besides the fact that no waiters had come to us, it was pretty adorable watching them... and we hadn't seen them in so long—especially not in a state where they could all just... talk and be themselves instead of fighting.

"I wonder why humans have genders at all." Hawkmon said slowly. "It seems unimportant to me."

"It's how they have babies." Armadillomon laughed.

"Well why aren't they just programmed for rebirth after death?" Hawkmon asked, "Like we are."

"Who cares?" Gatomon asked, "They say that we don't have genders, but have you seen me as Angewomon? I'm pretty sure I'm a girl."

Everyone laughed with her.

"I'm hungry..." Gomamon said suddenly, breaking the laughter.

"Where is the waiter?" Miyako asked impatiently.

"Perhaps there isn't one." Hikari suggested, "Takeru and I had pizza earlier and we had to make it ourselves."

I stared at them incredulously... they had stopped to get pizza? In the middle of that war? When did they have time? I shrugged it off. It didn't matter. I looked next to me and saw Daisuke who was sitting next to Kurayami and Veemon. Ken was sitting next to Gabumon with Wormmon in his lap... for some reason, even after the fact, those of us who had sided with Fanglongmon had been grouped together...

"I'll start cooking!" Mimi said suddenly, jumping to her feet, "I'm good at cooking!"

"Me too!" Daisuke said, following her lead, "I'll help!"

"Can I help too?" Palmon asked.

"Me too!" Veemon said, as the two digimon jumped to their feet. Mimi and Daisuke ran to the kitchen quickly and held the door open for Palmon and Veemon.

"Daisuke is cooking our food?" Sora asked.

"Oh don't worry," Hikari smiled, "He's really good at cooking... noodles. And how different can a hamburger be really?"

"I think Sora was more concerned with him poisoning our food and trying to kill us all." Noriko said with a grin.

"That's not fair." Hikari said flatly. "He sided with us. He broke free of Fanglongmon's hold and is now on our side."

"Why should we trust him?" Noriko asked.

"Because there is no reason not to." Hikari growled. "Daisuke is the nicest person ever!"

"He rescued Gennai." Kurayami piped up suddenly. "He saved Gennai, disobeying Fanglongmon before running into battle and saving all of your lives from Piedmon. If his digimon believes he's changed, then why can't you?"

There was silence for a moment before Noriko turned on Kurayami. "You're probably evil too! Lying isn't something that I'd put past you."

"I'm not lying though." Kurayami said softly. "And I'm not evil... it's not me... its Fanglongmon." I could tell she was on the verge of tears so I turned to Noriko quickly.

"Noriko, shut up." I said flatly. "Everyone else who thinks the same way, raise your hands."

Koushiro and Noriko were the first to raise his hand. Soon Takeru and Sora nervously followed suit. Taichi, Miyako and Jou raised their hands after them. And then finally Natsuni and Momoe shrugged to each other and raised their hands.

"So it's just those of you who joined Fanglongmon who think differently." Taichi said.

"And me." Hikari said flatly.

"Well you're just confused." Taichi said, "You trust people too easily. They could all be secretly working for him."

"You guys just don't understand." Ken said slowly.

"Actually I think I do." Koushiro said simply. "I understand a lot of things actually."

"No you don't!" Michael growled, "You don't understand what it was like."

"I do though." Koushiro said, "Many of us do. He spoke to most of us."

"He promised us everything we'd ever wanted." Taichi nodded, "He tried to convince us."

"But we didn't chose him like all of you did." Miyako said simply.

"Well there's no reason to hate us because we're weak." I snapped. "It's something we can all work on. We don't hate Daisuke because he's not as smart as Koushiro! We don't hate Takeru because he isn't as brave as Taichi... we don't hate me because I'm not so good with love—"

"No, of course not." Sora interjected sarcastically.

"So not all of us are as strong as you are Taichi," I said, "But that doesn't mean you can't trust us. And besides, you had a wonderful childhood and a wonderful life. So did you Sora—and Koushiro, sure you found out you were adopted, but you loved your parents anyway. Mimi's life was sparkling and fit for a princess—you just don't understand. One of my first memories is my parents arguing. They hurt Takeru—by accident of course—but he was still hurt in the process. And then they got divorced. No one at school would talk to me—I had no friends, and nothing I could do ever seemed right. That was my childhood. I had more darkness for Fanglongmon to feed on. So it's not my fault."

"My mother disappeared to live in the dark ocean leaving me alone with my dad." Kurayami said. "He resented me for it and has yet to treat me with any respect."

"My brother died." Ken said simply. "Fanglongmon promised me he could bring him back."

There was silence after that, and it seemed that no one had any more doubts about why we'd joined the dark side. But that was proven false by Noriko. "And you?" She asked Michael.

Michael stood up suddenly and pushed his chair back, taking his egg with him to go sit at another table. Natsuni and Tatum jumped to their feet and hurried after him to go comfort him. Monodromon debated whether or not to follow, but when Goblimon did he decided it was right and the two digimon followed them.

Momoe shot a glare to Noriko as the door flung open and Mimi and Daisuke came out with trays of food.

"Who's hungry?" Mimi asked cheerfully as Palmon ran out with some condiments. Veemon followed her with the rest of them.

"What happened here?" Daisuke asked when he noticed Michael and the others sitting by themselves, and the looks of depression on the rest of our faces. No one thought to answer him. But as he handed out the food, either everyone had realized that they were being stupid for not trusting Daisuke, or they were just too hungry to care about poison, because they all started eating.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04:**Is Dragomon really out of the picture like Willis suspects? Probably not, but what's his next move? What's the digidestined's next move? Daisuke, Iori and Ken are going to find out next time—blah blah blah


	45. Dark Forces

**Y/N: **Okay. Way too much writing, and I was on a mini vacation, so I didn't get too much time to cram it in during the trip. I wrote all day today and yesterday when I could, I'm sorry it's a day late, but I hope the quality and action makes up for it. Fingers crossed anyway. :-)

**U/N:** This is a Loooooooong chapter... it is a goooooood chapter, mostly written by my sister-but it's cool... uhm... enjoy, review and stuff... Not really much to say except that i will try REALLY hard to get the next chapter done for Wednesday

Unfortunately, after I got this all set up and ready to upload…the hydro went out, so I didn't have any internet to do this with. Sorry that it's late(er than it was supposed to be)!

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 45: Dark Forces **

_**Toshiko:**_

I pulled sharply on the rope that tethered Bakemon to the group as he tried to fly off. I wasn't sure how many times he was planning on trying that, but I was not going to let go of the rope. I was not going to let him get away. But he didn't seem to understand that after the sixteenth time trying, and failing, it was clearly a bad plan.

Hiroaki was walking next to me as we walked down the street of my own home. He was keeping a close eye out for digimon; there were none in sight—for some reason or another. But I couldn't complain. I didn't exactly want my house destroyed by digimon... again.

Wizardmon was in the front of the group claiming that if Wisemon were to appear then he'd have to be ready to fight. And behind us I could hear Kae and Rei talking about Ken.

And then there were hooves... I closed my eyes to listen. They were faint—and then suddenly were accompanied by an engine... I turned quickly and screamed as a large brown and purple centaur galloped around the corner of the street behind us. I almost let go of the rope holding Bakemon but grabbed on tight and almost turned to run away.

But then the car sped around the corner and a fiery man followed closely behind—if it weren't for the face that I saw in the car I would never have stopped moving... but at the same time I wanted to run.

It was my husband, Haruhiko—and as things were I wasn't ready to talk to him, or even look at him for that matter, but I couldn't tell if he was in danger or not, and if he was, I couldn't just leave him there to fend for himself.

Wizardmon ran toward the centaur, ready to fight, but he stopped running the moment the centaur slowed to a trot. "Young Wizardmon," The centaur said. "We have come to find Miss Toshiko."

I felt my face turn red as Kae, Rei, and Hiroaki turned to look at me.

"That's you toots!" Bakemon said, pushing me forward. I shook him off. The truck pulled to the side of the road and five people clambered out. I only recognized two of them—my husband Haruhiko and his young friend Shuu.

I turned to walk away. I couldn't do this yet. Not now—not in front of everyone. I led the way for everyone, not sure if they were following me at all.

"Hey everyone," A man said. So they were following me... that was good... kind of. "I'm Mantaru Inoue—what's your names? Let's get acquainted y'know?"

"Inoue?" Kae asked, "Do you by any chance know Miyako?"

"You mean little Squirt?" A girl asked, "Yeah, she's our sister, why?"

"I'm Ken Ichijouji's mother! Kae Ichijouji!" Kae said, her voice indicated that she was smiling.

"Then we're like family!" Mantaru smiled, "It's nice to meet you Kae, mother of the boy who is dating my little sister."

I rolled my eyes at the three of them and continued walking.

"You don't seem like you're in a very good mood." Bakemon said with a grin.

"Keep quiet." I told him flatly, I was not in the mood for anything he had to say.

"Are you okay?"

"I told you to—" I stopped talking suddenly when I realized it was Haruhiko who had spoken and not Bakemon. I looked to him and then back to the road. We were passing by my house now. I looked over to see if it had been attacked, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it looked fine.

"The greenhouse door is open." Haruhiko said to me. I looked quickly toward it and saw that he was right. I hurried toward it, dragging Bakemon through the sky toward it. I slid to a stop in front of it, pushing it open and looking around. I sighed with relief, seeing that my flowers were mostly unharmed. I couldn't see anything affected, but I knew something had to have been if the door was opened. "Looks good." Haruhiko said. I ignored him though.

"Is that you?" A little voice asked, "Omigod it is! It's you! IT'S YOU!" I froze in my tracks, not sure where the voice was coming from. "Look down." A very unimpressed voice said.

I looked down slowly to see a green seed-like digimon with grey spikes all over its round body. It was about the size of a small bowling ball with a large leaf acting as a tail.

"And who... are you?" I asked slowly.

Budmon grinned, hopping toward me. I jumped back, just in case the digimon was dangerous. "You don't need to be scared of me! I'm your friend! I'm your friend! I'm your friend!" The small digimon leapt into my arms causing me to drop Bakemon's rope to catch it. Haruhiko snatched the rope up quickly. "My name is Budmon! And we're partners!"

"We're what?" I asked slowly as something began glowing over by the white delphiniums. I moved slowly toward it, Budmon in my arms and saw the same device that had fallen from the sky and landed with Hiroaki when Wizardmon claimed to be his partner.

"Is that a digivice? You have a partner now too!" Haruhiko said. "Mine is Centarumon..."

"Who is this?" Budmon asked, looking toward my husband. I ignored Budmon as I picked up the digivice.

"What do I do with this?" I asked Budmon.

"It helps you channel your energy to help me grow and become even more awesome!" Budmon smiled. I nodded and turned to leave the greenhouse. I stood by the door, waiting for Haruhiko to leave before me so I could close the door behind me.

"We need to talk Toshiko." He said.

"Later." I said flatly, motioning for him to go. "We have business to tend to."

Haruhiko practically pouted as he dragged Bakemon through the door. I followed him and closed the door. This Wisemon fellow was out there somewhere, he was helping some sort of great evil digimon get all the digimon into this world—why? I didn't know. But I did know that we needed to take him out so we could send the digimon back where they belonged... whenever we could figure out how to split the worlds up again...

_**Satoe**_

I watched as the whale swam the other way. My husband had thanked him again and again, but I did not. Perhaps if he'd brushed his teeth before eating us...

But nonetheless I was rather happy to now be in Japan. The man who owned the whale had said that someone called Dragomon might try to stop us in our attempts at swimming across the ocean, but he did not. It was a smooth trip as far as I was concerned—but being eaten by a whale was one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life.

"So where to?" Keisuke asked me with a smile.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know." I said honestly.

It was then that a man and a woman passed us, dragging their daughter along with them. Their daughter was wearing a large pink cowgirl hat. I stared at the girl as I thought to myself about my daughter... all the time I'd spent with her until she decided to leave me. To betray me and leave me... She was evil. She wasn't a good daughter—why was I even searching for her?

"I heard a group of people went inside!" A woman said. I turned to see a blonde haired woman chatting with a brunette.

The brunette rolled her eyes, "I told you that."

"And the news says that they'll never come out alive." The blonde said.

"I know, and like I said, I was the one who watched the news—"

"One of them was Yamato Ishida!" The blonde said.

"I KNOW." The brunette sighed.

"Satoe..." Keisuke said, drawing my attention to him. "Isn't that one of Mimi's friends? Yamato Ishida?"

I nodded slowly. The traitor had not only left me to become fat... but she wanted to go into some place where she would never come out alive? Keisuke grabbed my wrist and dragged me to a nearby shop where we stood and stared into the window at a series of television sets.

There was video footage of a large golden dragon emerging from the ground and soaring through the air. Suddenly everything went cold around me and wind pushed downwards. The sky went dark and black. And then it was all back to normal. I looked to the sky quickly to see the very same golden dragon soaring through the air above us.

I nervously looked to the screen where a reporter was speaking. "The dragon is on the loose—and the group of children who set foot into the cavern have yet to be spotted by our helicopters. Now to Minoru, reporting live from the scene." The screen switched to a man who was standing next to a large hole in the ground.

"Those kids haven't come out yet... but I heard screaming. Lots of it. I think... they might be dead."

Keisuke grabbed me again and tried to pull me but I slipped my wrist through his hands. "They're dead." I said slowly. Watching the screen. It switched back to the reporter who was clearly in less of a state of shock than Minoru was.

"They're not dead." Keisuke said. "They know what they're doing. They've done this before—haven't they?"

I nodded. "You're right... she's still alive... for now." I turned to him quickly. "We have to save her... we have to save my Mimi."

_**Ken:**_

I was so…happy at that moment. I had just eaten a hot meal and had something to drink. I was in heaven. God, I needed that so much. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I smelled the food Mimi, Daisuke and Palmon were cooking. My stomach nearly ate itself while I waited, I was so hungry. And the water, as it slid down my throat was the best thing that ever happened to me. The only thing that would have made that better was one of Mom's many of desserts.

But I didn't have time to dwell on my happiness any longer. No one else seemed particularly happy with me. Or Yamato, Daisuke or Kurayami or Michael. They didn't want to trust us. Iori did. Hikari did. That should have been enough for me, because earning Iori's trust was the single most difficult thing anyone could do. Why didn't the others trust his judgement? Was it because they were treating him like a child since his near death experience?

And just what were we supposed to do about Willis?

In any case, with Natsuni, Michael and Tatum off to the side, entertaining the digimon, trying to keep their spirits up, and the rest of us at war with one another—with Noriko being equally glared at by both sides, and Iori and Hikari glaring at both Noriko an my opposition—we were ready to talk.

And we had some serious discussing to do. Taichi and Yamato had already started. Taichi was trying to overlook Yamato's utter lack of judgement. How he joined Fanglongmon because it seemed like a good idea. But Fanglongmon hadn't taken his mind like he'd taken mine, or Daisuke's, or Kuryami's. He also didn't follow his digimon, like Michael, or fake it the entire time like Iori.

He just went for the hell of it.

I couldn't help but wish I had been able to do that same thing. Choose of my own free will to go where I wanted. I didn't have that option. I didn't mean to be evil. Fanglongmon started small, and by the time I noticed anything off, he'd already sunk his claws into me. I was a puppet dancing on strings for him.

But Miyako didn't seem to care that I didn't chose it. She was avoiding me again. I'd thought that when we were watching Iori fade to almost nothing, the way she was clinging to me, the way she needed me for support. I'd thought that meant we'd at least talk it through, because she clearly needs me to stay sane, and I need her too. That's what made us a great couple; we leaned on one another for support during hard times, but were still able to do things by ourselves too. We didn't depend on each other to the point where we became co-dependent. Before the Fanglongmon episode, we were the only non-complicated relationship this group had ever had.

Sora and Taichi had been a disaster from the start, from what Hikari said, and it made Taichi lose hold on himself, sending him in a dark spiral. Taichi still hadn't recovered from it making any dates he went on tank before the topic of a second date could be broached. Koushiro and Mimi had been dancing around each other for three years now, and I was willing to bet that they were going to take another three years to figure that out. They were moving at a snail's pace, and all it was doing was hurting themselves and each other. Jou's relationship with Momoe was probably the strangest one our group had ever encountered. He dated her for three years, but he never brought her to any group outings. And then she disappears, making everyone think they'd broken up, but in reality, she was in her third trimester and decided to travel the globe, leaving Jou behind… And we can't forget that he never told anybody, not even Miyako, who is Momoe's _sister_, about the baby at all.

Then Daisuke and Hikari comes in. He was obsessed with her for years, and then, having met Kurayami and having confessed to Hikari only to be ignored, he gave up. Just like that. Though he did move in with her… And Willis came in and swept Hikari off her feet, right out from under Takeru's nose. And Iori was a mess, because he was scorned by his first love or something, I wasn't really sure. He didn't really trust me with anything like that. But in the meantime, he got a new best friend that he did everything with—from moonlit walks to picnics in the park—and they went to the movies _every single_ Friday. The only thing separating them from being a couple is the lack of hand holding and kissing. I just wondered when he'd realize that. Michael and Tatum were too dramatic for a normal relationship, but they somehow made their dramatic flairs work for them.

So that left Miyako and I. We started dating five and a half years ago, not a lot of arguments, not a lot of conflicts or dramatics, we just fit together—but we always discovered something new about the other so it wasn't boring either. We were the perfect couple. And now that was gone. Because of Fanglongmon. I hated that freaking digimon so much. I wanted to be with Miyako for a really long time, forever even if I could. And because of him, I didn't have _that_ choice either.

"What's our next step?" Taichi asked finally.

"We have to beat Fanglongmon," I supplied. I heard Koushiro scoff. He really didn't like me. I couldn't figure out why. I just knew I wasn't overly fond of him and the way he treated Otamamon. "What's your idea then?"

"We can't just go and beat Fanglongmon," he said. "We don't know where he is. And he still has LadyDevimon, who will need to be dealt with, and Dragomon at his disposal. Rushing in with such a simple, unintelligent plan would be suicide."

"Okay," Yamato said. "Koushiro _is_ right, no denying that. How are we going about this then? There are three at least that we need to work into this plan."

"Four," I said.

"Three," Taichi said, looking to Koushiro who nodded.

"Daemon," I supplied. "He's still out there, and he'll be looking for me again now that I'm not under Kurayami's—and therefore Fanglongmon's—protection."

"I'm not so sure that Daemon is really working for Fanglongmon," Kurayami said. "He is merely scared of Fanglongmon's power, so he submitted to my instructions."

"Yeah…see, I'm not so sure about how…safe your information will prove to be," Mimi said slowly.

"I'm the only inside information you've got," Kurayami told her blankly.

"We've got Ken and Daisuke," Sora offered. Great. Thanks Sora. Miyako was glaring at me again and Koushiro was sending me similar dark looks.

Kurayami laughed.

It wasn't an overly pleasant sound, it was sardonic.

"Fanglongmon didn't trust Daisuke with anything more than his current instructions. He doesn't know any of his plans," Kurayami said.

"Ken then," Miyako said with a grimace.

"I don't remember all that much. I'm not even sure if I was really in my mind at all when he was," I told them—_her_. "He only wanted me because I had the Dark Spore fragments. He said I was easy pickings, because my mind had been taken before."

"That alone made you one of his favourites," Kurayami said. She was not helping me too much with the whole Miyako now hated me thing. "Me too. It's almost as if he bought residence up in my brain, and he can come in whenever he wants. I don't understand it. I don't know how to stop it."

"You're not really making me feel very safe," Mimi said, scooting her chair closer to Koushiro, who was too busy glaring at me to notice. Dancing I tell you!

"I would apologize, but now is not the time to be feeling safe," Kurayami told her.

"She's right," Daisuke said, jumping to her defense. I was almost positive he liked her. The way he called her every single day. He even followed her to the Dark Side, something Daisuke would never do on his own. This was sure to be another entry on the strange relationship chart.

"Do explain," Taichi told him.

"If we allow ourselves to relax, we won't be ready. We _know_ we're not safe. Fanglongmon is out there still. It's a given. We can't let him get the better of us," Daisuke explained. It made sense.

"Fair enough," Taichi allowed. "What we need now though, is not speculation. We need a definitive plan. Who's got an idea?"

"We could send out scouts," Iori said, surprising everyone. "Not to look for Fanglongmon per say, but we need to make sure that digimon aren't still attacking humans. We need to stop that. Mom and Grandpa are out there, and I don't want anything to happen to them while we sit here and try to come up with some sort of a plan."

"And if we find Fanglongmon along the way?" Hikari asked.

"All the better then," he said simply.

"I like the idea," Miyako said. A few of us looked at her incredulously. "Not the finding Fanglongmon in a small group being good bit, the making sure our families are safe by scouting out the streets bit."

"And Fanglongmon might have a few other henchmen floating about," Daisuke added. "You never know. I agree."

"There're more than a few henchmen," Kurayami said with a dark laugh. "He's done the same thing he did with us with a lot of digimon. He's got a mindless army."

We gulped at that information. How had I forgotten that little detail? Once she said it, I remembered. I remembered standing in front of them, giving them a pep talk about how easy it would be to bring down the digidestined, because they didn't have it in them to hurt the innocents…

"I'm going scouting. Who's with me?" Daisuke said, thankfully interrupting my memory.

"I am," Miyako said rolling her eyes. "You guys figure out our game plan for when we _do_ find Fanglongmon. I'm going to kick some digimon butt in the meantime."

"Try not to wear out your digimon though," Taichi reminded her. "We don't know when the next meal will come, so you can't waste Hawkmon's energy."

"I'm not five," Miyako said. "But I'll keep it in mind."

"Right," Daisuke said. "C'mon Veemon, let's get rolling!"

"What an idiot," Miyako said with a small smile. Apparently she was glad that _Daisuke_ was back from the Dark Side, but not me… that sucked. Daisuke and Veemon bolted out of the building and started running down the street. "We'd better get moving Hawkmon, or we'll get left in his dust."

"Right away, Miyako," Hawkmon said.

And she left.

She didn't even say goodbye.

This sucked more.

"I'm going on my own," Iori said. "I don't trust my Grandfather's health to those two."

"You can't!"

It was sort of a collected screaming. No one wanted Iori to get hurt again. He almost… We almost lost him. We weren't going to let him go off on his own. He proved himself to be quite reckless last time.

"I _can_, and I _will_," he said firmly. "You can't treat me like a baby."

"We're not," Taichi said seriously. "We don't want you to get hurt again. Not so soon."

"I can take care of myself," Iori insisted.

"Really?" Mimi asked wryly.

"I was protecting Hikari," Iori pointed out. "And now I'm going to protect Mom and Grandpa."

"That settles it then," Hikari said. "I'm going with you."

"Uh, _no_," Taichi said.

"Uh, _yes_," Hikari shot back.

"I'm with Taichi on this one," Takeru told her.

"So am I," Iori said.

"It does seem to contradict your meaning, Hikari," Koushiro told her gently. I'd never really seen him try and spare others feelings before. He certainly didn't care about Otamamon's. "He's going to put himself in more danger if you're with him."

"He needs somebody," Hikari insisted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Iori sneak out the front door. That little…

"He's gone," I said.

"He's right there," Koushiro said pointing to his now empty chair. That's right, I thought. Who's wrong now?

"What the hell?" Taichi shouted. "Iori! Iori get back here."

"He's gone," Jou said, looking up from his daughter's face from his place beside Momoe. "Let him do what he wants. He needs to do this. He's very stubborn. He'll find a way regardless. This way we let him act on his own wishes, to let him feel like an adult. He's tired of us treating him like a fragile toy, a child."

"But Jou," Mimi insisted. "He is fragile. He didn't have the energy to walk just a little while ago."

"Let him go," Jou said. "Let him do this."

"Should we let Hikari too?" Sora asked.

"No," Takeru and Taichi said at once.

"'Cause she's gone too," she said.

"Damn it," Yamato cried.

"Oh my God," Taichi shouted. "She's going to get herself killed. Damn it, Hikari. She's not Iori. She can't fight with anything she finds lying around. She needed Iori to jump in front of that dagger for her. She freezes when she's scared."

"She has Gatomon with her this time though," Kurayami said, surprising everyone. "She didn't before. Gatomon will protect her. So will Iori and Armadillomon. And…those twin rabbit digimon as well."

"Terriermon is a dog actually," Koushiro said unhelpfully.

"Great," Taichi said. "The evil girl is the one comforting me. I feel so special."

_**Daisuke:**_

I couldn't help it. I jumped at the first chance to get out of that damned restaurant. No one cared about me anymore. That was the reason I joined Fanglongmon in the first place. If they were trying to keep us from turning evil again, they were doing a crappy job at it.

We had to be a team. We couldn't rip each other to shreds. That was Fanglongmon's job. And at this point in time, I would've guessed he'd have a really easy go of it too. We were fighting for the same cause, but we were fighting each other with much more ferocity.

"Daisuke," Veemon called from behind me. "Daisuke slow down. Your legs are longer than mine."

I slowed my pace to a furious fast walk.

"Daisuke," he said. "We're supposed to be preserving energy, not wasting it all."

"I'm mad, Veemon," I said to him.

"At me?"

"No. You're one of the few I can stand right now, to be honest," I told him.

"But you and Taichi were talking a lot earlier," he said.

"He can't accept that I'm back. So I can't stand him," I said simply.

"But Daisuke, he doesn't know you like I know you."

"Veemon, be honest with me… Do you hate me?"

"No," Veemon said hastily. "How could you think that?"

"You wouldn't stick with me. I get it. I know now what I was doing was wrong, but at the time I didn't see any other way to look at things. I didn't have any free will," I explained.

"I couldn't stand there and help you do that to yourself," he told me. "It hurt so much to see you hurting because I wasn't with you, but I couldn't accept it. You aren't like that Daisuke. Why would you do it?"

"No one wants me, Veemon. They want Taichi. They don't think I can handle anything, and Taichi just takes over whenever he's in the room. It's in his nature. But I'm a leader too. Shouldn't I at least be second in command? But Gennai. He took my place, and then no one was listening to anything I said. They think I'm one big joke. They can't see past my sense of humour."

"That's not true," Veemon said firmly.

"It is true. They probably didn't miss me when I was gone either. They only missed me when they were fighting against me, because I was standing in their way. They just… They don't need me. I need to belong somewhere Veemon. I _need_ to."

"You belong with me."

"That's nice. It doesn't seem like you mean it too much though, what with you abandoning me and all."

"No," Veemon said sharply. "You belong in your right mind. And then when you're my lovable, goofy, strong partner, you belong right at my side. Hikari missed you, you know. A lot. I spent a lot of time with her, because she seemed like the only one that cared. The only one that noticed me hurting. She noticed _you_ hurting too you know. Just like I can. But I don't understand. Why are you hurting so much? What happened to take away my full-of-life best friend?"

"I haven't seen my parents in just over a year," I told him. "They didn't support me, they didn't want me to succeed. They probably just didn't want me. I'm a screw-up. Didn't you know? I live with Hikari and the Yagamis now. Taichi doesn't know why. He's trying so hard to take that away from me too. I don't belong there though. I know I don't. I'm not a Yagami. And I can't tell him. I can't explain why his family wants me more than my own."

"What about Jun, and Otamamon?"

"Jun is the only exception to the family, but she doesn't know what happened," I said. "I can't tell her. She'll know how stupid I am and then she won't want me either. Otamamon is kind of a moron. Him and Hikari, they're the only ones that accept me entirely. I couldn't hurt her, you know. That's why Fanglongmon wouldn't tell me anything in advance. If I'd known we were supposed to… to _kill_ Hikari before the time came, I would have broken out of his hold ages ago. He knew that. He kept me on such a short leash."

"Daisuke," Veemon said, patting my shoulder in the middle of the street littered with digital trees. It expressed how I felt. The windows on the shops were smashed in, everything was falling apart, cracked and struggling to keep standing. "You. Are. Wanted."

"By who?" I said, trying desperately to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. I hadn't talked about any of this since it happened. Mr Yagami had asked once, but didn't press for information. Mrs Yagami was happy letting Hikari have another care-taker. She even offered to pay me once, but I told her staying with her family, being fed…that was enough for me. And Hikari never asked. She knew something happened and that was enough for her.

Taichi was the one that ruined that. Everything was fine up until that point. I was able to go on, pretending that nothing was wrong, that everything was great. And Jun asked, but knew I'd never tell her. If our parents couldn't own up to what happened I wasn't going to be the one to break Jun's happy picture of them. She deserved to be happy. She was so kind to me even after everything. She'd smuggled out stuff I'd forgotten in my room, so I wouldn't have to see them. She was my hero.

"Me. Daisuke you're my best friend. And Hikari likes you, Iori even," he said. "Kurayami depends on you. Did you know that? I can see it. She needs you to keep her out of his clutches. She needs you in order to feel like she belongs. You and Hikari are the only ones that accept her for all that she really is, and you're not afraid of her like everyone else. She needs you. I need you."

"I like you too."

I turned around to see Miyako, with tears running down her cheeks walking next to Hawkmon. I hastily wiped my own tears away.

"How much did you hear?" I asked, trying to save face.

"Enough," she said. "And I do. Like you, I mean. I couldn't see how I could get through a digimon adventure without you, Daisuke. Taichi might lead the whole group, but you lead me. You always have. I didn't know who to listen to with you gone. I couldn't join you, because I knew it was horribly, horribly wrong, but Fanglongmon had fun trying, playing on that. Saying I needed my leader. And I did. But I needed you to be on my side. And I managed to lose Ken because of it."

So she'd probably heard it all then…

"We'll just pretend this never happened, yeah?" I tried.

"Daisuke," she said softly. "You need to talk about it. You need to let it out. Building up emotions like this leads to a panic attack or a breakdown. I'd know. I have them at least once a week."

She let out a watery sort of laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh with her. It was my type of joke. Corny and obvious.

"Ken loves you," I said rolling my eyes. "You were holding him back. The only thing keeping him from being a complete slave like Kurayami. He was evil, no doubt about that, but I think that it might have just been Fanglongmon pulling on the Dark Spore and the memories he has of that time."

"He promised him his brother," Miyako said softly.

"Ken would've had to have been almost gone for him to fall for that again," I told her. "He's fine. I'd trust him with my life. You were able to overlook his last dark period. What's different from this time?"

"I don't know how I feel about it," she said.

"He didn't have much choice in the matter. He really didn't. By the time he figured it out, he was a goner, just like me, just like Kurayami," I told her. "I didn't notice his presence until he'd pulled on all of my least happy memories, all of my insecurities. I was dwelling on them, but never suspected it was him. Not until I was desperate for a way to forget, for relief."

"Ken and I talked about that stuff though. All the time. All of our bad memories, all of our insecurities," she said. "We're completely open with each other. That's what makes us work. We know and learn things about each other daily. How come that wasn't enough?"

"Because Fanglongmon would have blocked that out," I said honestly. "He made sure he was the only lifeline. Ken didn't stand a chance. His past happened to be Fanlgongmon's way in. Kurayami was abandoned in the Dark Ocean, that's how he got to her. Some of us have more obvious reasons, but he got us all the same way. He isolated us. And our digimon followed."

"Except for me," Veemon said proudly. And I was kind of proud of him too. He was strong willed and fought for what was right. Always. He was what I should be.

"Except for you," I agreed. "And Michael…I think he followed Betamon maybe."

"And that explains his reaction to Noriko's comment," Miyako said.

"Noriko needs to shut the hell up if she doesn't want to get beaten badly," I said through gritted teeth. And chances were, it wouldn't be _me_ that did it. It would be Hikari. She irritated Hikari something terrible. And I wanted to be there when it happened.

"Iori looked thoroughly ticked off at her," she agreed.

"That should keep her from saying anything else that could get her hurt," I said. "Does she think that kind of attitude will win Iori over?"

"She's stressed," Miyako said. "And to be fair, when she isn't stressed she thinks stalking him will make her attractive to him."

"If he dates her, I'll eat my hat," I told her.

"You don't own a hat," she said wryly.

"My shoe then," I said rolling my eyes.

"Not that I'm not thrilled that we're all having a nice conversation and bonding again," Hawkmon interjected. "But I thought it might be imperative for me to inform you of our guests."

"What guests?" I asked. But I hadn't needed to. Looking away from Miyako, I could see that we were pretty much surrounded. They were dark creatures though. Shadows perhaps. They weren't part of Fanglongmon's army. They were something else.

"Dragomon," Miyako whispered, taking the words from right out of my mouth. "These are his. Oh God. No, no, no, no."

"Breath," I told her. "Veemon, how high do we have to go to take care of these?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Light," Miyako said confusing me. "They need light to be beaten. I'd suggest Flamedramon or Raidramon to be honest, with the lightning and the fire. They'd have a better chance to take him out than ExVeemon, and we can't afford to tire him out too bad with AeroVeedramon. But we don't have our D-3's, so it doesn't even matter."

"They weren't in our D-3's. They were in our D-Terminals," I remembered.

"And worked hand in hand with the D-3's," she sighed.

"With a digivice," I said. "We won't know for sure if we don't try."

And I never left home without my D-Terminal. It was the one way we all had to keep contact with one another. Not that anyone used them at all anymore. It was just something I did. Also I didn't want my parents to throw it out, so I took it with me when I left…

"Okay, um… Digi-Armour Energize?"

There was a moment of silence. Nothing happened, except for the bad guys moving closer. It was a terrible few seconds. I felt like a complete idiot, standing there with my digivice in one hand and the D-terminal in the other waiting for some sort of miracle to happen.

And then…it did.

"**Veemon armour digivolve to… Raidramon!**"

I hadn't seen him in years. I hadn't thought it was really possible, without Gatomon's tail ring pulsing energy throughout the Digital World. But then it hit me. She had the power of light now. Hikari gave Gatomon her crest. It was her job to pulse energy throughout the Digital World now, well, I guess she was pulsing it throughout the uh…Dark Digital Earth now.

But there he was. Sleek and black armour with a lightning shaped spike out of his nose, kind of like a rhino. The lightning reminded me of my crest. It was like that, like lightning with dots and stuff, but I always thought the lightning bolt shape was enough to make up for the silly pink colour it was. Peach. It doesn't sound tough at all.

Maybe that was the point. It wasn't supposed to be tough. It was humility. I didn't need to rub it in other's faces.

"It worked!" Miyako shouted happily, kind of reminding me of Dr Frankenstein, shouting that his monster is alive. If I wasn't equally as stoked, I would have been a little scared of her.

"Is it my turn then?" Hawkmon asked, excited.

"Oh yeah," she said. "Halsemon here we come. Digi-Armour Energize!"

"**Hawkmon armour digivolve to… Halsemon!**"

"Yes!" Miyako screamed. "Let's do this."

"Right," I said with a laugh. I did, however, send a quick message through the D-Terminal. _Digi-Armour is in action again!_

The shadows seemed a little nervous, but just for a few seconds. They were advancing again not long after. I was all geared for a battle. It would be good to battle against evil again, rather than my friends.

"Thunder Blast!" Raidramon yelled, hitting the nearest shadow with a bolt of lightning. The shadow immediately dissipated into nothing. It was awesome!

"Do it again," I said with a grin. He did. And then again, and again, and again. The shadows were being incinerated one by one, but it wasn't fast enough.

"My turn," Halsemon said. "Eagle Eye!"

Two glowing arrows of pure red energy fired from his eyes and smote the enemies that crossed their paths.

"Yes!" I cheered.

"Woo!" Miyako screamed doing a little dance. "This is great! We're doing it."

But she spoke too soon. The shadows' numbers didn't seem to be dwindling at all. In fact the opposite seemed to be true. There were more now than when we started. Dragomon must have planned for awhile for this. The sheer numbers had to have taken time to produce.

We couldn't keep up with this. Not without some serious backup. Our attacks were working wonderfully, but not against so many. We weren't going to see the end of this if we didn't think of something fast.

_**Iori:**_

"Why?" Armadillomon asked.

"Why what?" I asked him back. He wasn't making any sense.

"Why did you decide to come out again so soon?" he elaborated.

"It's something I need to do," I told him. "I need to finish this fast. I can't keep fighting this war. It's too draining. I need to see it to the end though. So if it means that _I_ have to take the initiative and actually get something done, I'm going to do it. I can't stay awake too much longer. I had a short nap awhile back, but I swear I was more tired after it than I was before. I just want to find Fanglongmon and Dragomon and whoever else there is, and defeat them so I can go to sleep."

"And I have another question," he said. I motioned for him to ask it. "Why didn't you tell me about your dreams?"

"I thought you'd think I was crazy. I'd been keeping them to myself for as long as I've had them. Hikari knew I'd had a dream, but didn't know what it was about. I wouldn't tell her. I just had to protect her," I told him.

"Because she's Hikari?"

"No," I said. "Because I promised that fairy queen."

"You sound kind of crazy…"

"That's why I didn't tell you."

"You could have you know," he said. "Then I would have been prepared. I would have known you would do something like that to save her."

"_I_ didn't know I was going to do that," I said. "I knew someone was going to try it, but I didn't know I would jump in front of it. How could I. I figured I'd push her out of the way, or tackle whoever was throwing it."

"I almost lost you, Iori," he said sadly. "You have to warn me."

"I'm sorry," I said. "Not that I did it. But that it hurt you."

"Of course it would hurt me. I love you Iori, you're my best friend," he told me. "You have to tell me before you do something so, so stupid ever again!"

Noriko flashed before my eyes. Yep. She was horrid. The way she didn't trust any of the others, but trusted me enough because she fancied herself in love with me…I couldn't handle that. She hurt Michael so badly because she doesn't know how to think before she opens her damn mouth.

And because of Betamon I was going to do something terribly stupid.

"You know," I said. "There is something… Did you hear that?"

"No," he said. "Don't try to distract me. What are you planning?"

"Shh," I hissed. There it was again. Footsteps. Just one set, but I knew they weren't alone. There was purring. I growled. "Hikari!"

"Oops," she said sheepishly. She came out of the nearest alleyway.

"I could've attacked you," I scolded her.

"You would've noticed it was me," she said simply.

"What are you even doing here?"

"I came to help you silly," she said, and then she smiled. She smiled. Hikari smiling made it very, very hard to be mad at her. But I was going to try.

"I don't need your help. I can do this alone," I told her.

"Why won't you accept help?" she wanted to know.

"I can't accept help from _you_," I shouted.

That was wrong. Her bottom lip was quivering. Damn it. She knew what that did to everyone.

"Get back to where it's safe," I told her.

"It's no safer there than it is here," she said finally. "You know that just as well as I do. There is no safe place until he's gone."

"But with the others there, the number of other digimon, it's _safer_," I said.

"Did you think I came all alone?" she asked with a giggle. Gatomon came out of the alleyway, followed by both Terriermon and Lopmon.

"Can we find Willis now?" Terriermon asked.

"No," Gatmon said as though he'd been asking that repeatedly for hours. "Now shut up already."

"We just want Willis," Lopmon defended. "You have Hikari and Armadillomon has Iori. Why can't we have Willis?"

"Because his mother is a moron," Gatomon said. "She wouldn't let him talk _and_ she totally just piggy backs on whatever paycheck Willis earns doing his mysterious job he won't talk about."

I looked to Hikari.

"That's true," she said. "He's got a really secretive job. Or at least he hasn't told me about it. But it has this weird schedule, so he can chose how often he works and when. That's how he gets at least a week off every month so he can visit me."

"You're getting off track here," I told her. "You have to go back to the restaurant. Now."

"Why won't you let me stay?"

"I almost died last time someone tried to hurt you. If the next attack is something worse I might actually die. You might actually die. I can't let you get hurt Hikari," I told her.

"Iori, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you died," she said loudly. "You can't be alone right now. You need someone who will protect you too. We can protect each other."

"Hikari…" I tried.

"No. There are _four_ digimon here, and I can glow sometimes," she said. "You can fight with whatever you find too. We're pretty much the safest we _can_ be. Don't you think?"

She had a few good points there. And I wasn't about to let her walk back to the restaurant alone. The streets may have looked abandoned, but who knew what was lurking behind the rogue trees and in the alleyways. I didn't want to go back to the restaurant myself to escort her, in fear that they'd hold me hostage there and not let me leave again.

"Fine," I said with a sigh. She smiled brightly and grabbed my hand pulling me along the sidewalk.

"Then we'd better start looking," she said with a laugh.

It was nice to know _she_ wasn't treating me any differently. She knew I could handle myself if the need came. She didn't think that because I'd had a sword shoved through my chest I was suddenly a less skilled fighter. I'd like to see one of them take down a digimon with nothing more than a tree branch. They couldn't. But I could. So why was I the baby that needed watching when they needed their digimon to keep them safe? I could fight alongside Armadillomon if I needed to.

"This is really cute," Terriermon said motioning between Hikari and me.

"Like really super cute," Lopmon added.

"No, mega cute," Terriermon decided.

"Super mega cute," Lopmon argued.

"Guys," Gatomon interrupted.

"Don't fight," Armadillomon agreed.

"The thing is," Terriermon said. "She's dating Willis."

"So you two shouldn't be _too_ super mega cute," Lopmon finished.

First and foremost, when the heck did Hikari and Willis get together? They weren't dating at the beginning of this whole thing, and Hikari had never bothered to inform me of it happening.

But second, and most hilariously, they thought we liked each other?

"I _am_ dating Willis," Hikari assured them. "Iori's just my friend."

"I don't like Hikari," I told them.

"Well that's just mean," Terriermon scolded me.

"I have to agree," Hikari said.

"Not like that, you know what I mean you're just making this complicated."

"Iori likes Natsuni anyway," Armadillomon said.

"Whoa," I stopped him. "Where did you get _that_ idea?"

"From Hawkmon," he told me. "Hawkmon saw you two kiss when he was Valkyrimon. Don't humans only kiss when they like each other?"

"Yes," Hikari said quickly before I could say anything. She looked at me suspiciously. "They do. What haven't you told me Iori?"

"Well," I said. "Natsuni is just my best friend. And people totally kiss each other all the time without it meaning anything. I mean look at actors. They kiss people in the movies all the time. And if a person was an avid movie goer, to the point where it was an obsession she liked to share with her best friend, they _may_ use movies as a coping mechanism in a rather traumatising situation like being kidnapped by a flying she-devil."

"Someone's in denial," Lopmon sang.

I was _so_ not in denial. They just weren't listening. It was like I was talking to Sora. You mention a female's name around her and suddenly she's planning a way to get you two together, until you mention that a) you're not interested and b) she's your eighty-three year old neighbour…

"Don't be mean," Terriermon said. I was rightfully suspicious by his sudden change of tune. "Not everyone likes it when people know their secrets."

"Why does everyone think I like Natsuni? Can't a guy have a girl for a friend that is _just_ a friend?"

"No," Gatomon said. "Not really."

"Takeru and I are just friends though," Hikari said.

Damn. That was not helping my case at all.

"Koushiro and Sora, tell me there's something romantic going on there," I suggested.

"No, but Koushiro has a huge not-so-secret crush on Mimi. Of course he and Sora would be friends, who wouldn't Sora strengthen a friendship with over something like that. She's giving him advice," Hikari said with a sigh.

"But what about Jou and—"

I didn't get to finish my next suggestion and win my case. Something came out of the alleyway in front of us. Make that some _things_. They were shadowy and I couldn't place them. They weren't human and they definitely weren't digimon.

"Oh no," Hikari gasped making me realize they had to be from the Dark Ocean.

Why couldn't Fanglongmon just show up and I don't know, turn himself in and make everything a whole lot easier on everyone?

"Keep the humans safe," Gatomon ordered Armadillomon, Terriermon and Lopmon. "I'm going to fight."

"But Gatomon," Armadillomon protested.

"No," she insisted. "Save your energy. We're going to need it. And I'm the strongest we've got without digivolving."

"We _can't_ digivolve," Terriermon grumbled.

"I miss Willis," Lopmon whined.

"Keep your yaps shut," Gatomon told them. "We're in a battle here. We can't waste time on complaints. Get your acts together or go for backup. You're no use if you don't pay attention."

I got a strong impression of a military general from her at that moment.

"Cat Laser," she shouted, spurting a red laser from her eyes, disintegrating the nearest shadow. "Oh, I like this. This will be easy."

"Not so easy, look!" Armadillomon told her, motioning to even more shadows, pouring out from behind trees and cars along the streets, coming out from further alleyways and store windows. They were swarming us and we had one champion. We were going to have to digivolve. There was no doubt about it.

And there was this annoying beeping that just wouldn't stop.

"It's coming from your pocket," Terriermon informed me, having crawled around, clutching his long ears looking for its source. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a long grey communications device.

"My D-Terminal?" I questioned.

"Maybe it's from one of the others," Hikari suggested, pulling out her own.

_Digi-Armour is in action again!-Daisuke_

The digi-eggs were a possibility? I looked to Hikari just as she looked to me questioningly. I shrugged and she nodded. It was worth a try.

"Gatomon!" she shouted. "Digi-Armour Energize!"

"Digi-Armour Energize!" I yelled as well.

"**Gatmon armour digivolve to… Nefertimon!**"

"**Armadillomon armour digivolve to… Digmon!**"

"With the 'Angel of Light' on our side, we can't lose to a bunch of shadows," Lopmon cheered.

"Digmon's pretty cool too," Terriermon said patting my knee in consolation.

I rolled my eyes, and waited to see how Digmon would affect the shadows. Both his Gold Rush attack and his Rock Cracking attack were earthier rather than light. Using drills to make fissures in the ground wasn't going to take the darkness away. But no matter how I sliced it, Armadillomon's strong suit was not the light attribute. He was a solid, strong fighter, and used his size and strength to best his enemies. And a tree branch wasn't going to help me too much either.

"Gold Rush!" Digmon tried, but as I thought, the drill went right through the shadow, allowing it to keep moving.

"Beam of Isis!" Nefertimon called out, shooting a broad beam of light from her headdress.

"That a girl!" Terriermon said.

"Way to shed some light on the otherwise dark situation," Lopmon joked as the beam dissipated six different shadows.

"And for the encore, Hikari will light up like a lightbulb," Terriermon added.

I thought for a second.

"Hikari," I said. "_Can_ you light up?"

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe. If I try really hard."

"Do that," I said. She nodded and closed her eyes tightly. She clenched and unclenched her fingers repeatedly. It wasn't working. Great. The shadows were closing in. There were far too many for Nefertimon to get rid of before they got to us, and she was avoiding us with her attacks in case she hit us. Digmon was fighting his best against them, trying a more physical approach. They were able to choose whether they were solid or not, so it was touch and go, but he was taking a few out.

"Beam of Isis," Nefertimon called out again, taking down eight this time.

Terriermon was readying a Buddy Blast to my left, and I was readying my fists. The shadows were close now. Too close for comfort.

It was then that Hikari decided to turn on the light. Literally. She glowed brighter than I've ever seen. It was like a lighthouse, sweeping over the shadows surrounding us and destroying them all.

"You did it," Lopmon said happily. "They're gone."

Hikari opened her eyes after she stopped glowing and smiled brightly.

"I would've helped you know," Terriermon said. "I would've got a whole lot of them."

"I would have got more," Lopmon interjected.

"You might have to still," Nefertimon informed us. "There're more to come."

A false sense of victory was worse than a seemingly guaranteed defeat.

We readied ourselves for the second volley of shadows.

_**Ken:**_

It took awhile to get Taichi to settle down. It also took the combined efforts of Takeru, Jou and Yamato to keep him from running out after her. He didn't realize that we needed him so much right then. He was the closest thing we had to a leader at the moment, even though he wasn't sure about himself anymore, and even though his sister actually wore the goggles.

"Fine," he said after awhile. "Right, planning. Let's get this done so I can get my little sister."

"She's just scouting," Noriko said. "At this point isn't it the big guns to be worried about? There won't be too much out there anyway."

"Yeah, the thing is, I don't like you," Taichi said. "And that's not going to help at all."

"You don't like Kurayami either," Sora told him. "But you let her try to help."

"Besides, she's with Iori. It's him you should be worried about," Mimi said. "He's willing to die to protect your 'little' sister."

"Whatever," he said a little harshly, but I knew he saw the sense in their words. "Willis. He's first on our list. We're going to need to find him and collect him. We can't just go on without him at this point. He's got our big guns. Lopmon and Terriermon will be in danger if they go as they are, but with Willis' help, they are our only two guaranteed mega level digimon."

That got him the attention of a few glaring digimon.

"You know what I mean," he said trying to placate them. "He can't show his crests. They're destiny and miracles. He just has to believe they exist and he does. So they can reach mega level without problems every single time. We can't. We have to keep our crests. Hikari and Takeru are our next best guesses, because Hikari doesn't know how to turn hers off, and I don't think Takeru's gone more than six seconds in his life without hope. Everyone else has lost their crest at one point or another, and the next time _could_ be in this battle. Having guarantees would help out loads."

The digimon seemed pacified, and went back to their own discussion about what happened to each of them during Fanglongmon's rise to power. I thought they figured they'd be able to find information about him through the stories. I'd like to hear Wormmon's one day, but right now it was more important for me to listen to Taichi.

"So Willis is necessary," Jou agreed.

"I never _lost_ my crest," Koushiro muttered. "I gave it up once, that's all."

Mimi patted his knee consolingly. I imagined her saying "There, there" too. It was funny.

"Problem two," Taichi said moving on. "HerculesKabuterimon and GranKuwagamon aren't allowed to be in the same spot."

"What? Why not?" Tentomon and Wormmon shouted.

"Because you two fight like arch enemies," Takeru told them. "We can't have that either. We'll need a plan to work around that. We can't sacrifice their strength in this fight."

"Right you are," Taichi said.

"Fanglongmon is after the control of everything and everyone in the Dark Ocean, the Digital World and Earth," Kurayami supplied. "They are fighting over the kingship of the insect digimon are they not? Simply inform them that Fanglongmon has deemed them unworthy—and he has—to rule their bug digimon."

"That should get them fighting him instead of each other," I surmised. "Brilliant."

"Yeah," Koushiro said grudgingly, clearly still upset about Taichi forgetting his crest stability.

"Number three," Taichi said moving on. "We don't know how many digimon Fanglongmon has under his control, and we don't know what kind of army Dragomon has either."

"Fanglongmon has loads," I said, shuttering as I remembered the army again. "But nothing we can't handle. It's mostly rookies and champions. They have the easiest minds to corrupt, and there are a few power hungry ultimates. The Dark Masters were the only mega level digimon he had, so that's a plus."

"How did he get them all?" Yamato asked. Sora raised her eyebrow at him before glaring again. She was right though. He did it the same way he did to us. He got into your mind but you didn't know he was there. He manipulated your thoughts until you were isolated, and then he promised you something, anything, that he wouldn't be able to give you, or just didn't want to give you. Like my brother. He couldn't give Osamu back to me. I knew that now. But at the time, he was in so deep it seemed legitimate, and the isolation reminded me of when I was a child. When Osamu was the only one that would notice me, at the time our parents were obsessed with his genius abilities and didn't really care about me. I needed my brother, needed that comfort that only he was ever able to provide, so that's what Fanglongmon promised.

"He promised them power," Kurayami said. "They might not have been power hungry at the start, but he made them that way, and then he promised to give them a power like no other."

"And we can 'handle' this no problem?" Jou asked incredulously.

"He saved most of his X-Virus for…other means," Kurayami said glancing to Michael out of the corner of her eye.

"Any other problems?" Yamato asked quickly, to change the subject.

"Yeah," Taichi said. "Just one. We don't know _where_ they are."

"Okay," Sora said. "That's a fair problem."

"It's a big problem," Mimi said with a sigh.

"Right, we'll start with Willis then," Momoe said, rocking her now sleeping daughter in her arms. "You're going to want to get him before you find Fanglongmon or his army, so there are only two points to worry about at this point anyway. And Kurayami has already dealt with the one."

"We just have to go and get him," Yamato said rolling his eyes. "He's what, nineteen? That's an adult. His mother can't hold him there against his wishes. If he wants to help us, he will."

"Hikari's not allowed to be with us when we go," Taichi said.

"I hardly think she's going to risk laying a hand on her," Takeru said holding one hand over his fisted other, with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah," Mimi giggled. "And if she did, Iori would jump in front making it an assault on a minor anyway. She'd get deported or arrested or fined or something."

"Deportation is not really an option at the current time, but you are right," Koushiro told her. She smiled brightly making him lose focus. I had to cover up my chuckling. He'd take it as some sort of personal offence if he thought I was laughing at him.

I looked over to Michael to find that he hadn't heard anything we'd said. I was relieved to be honest. I didn't want him to worry about not having a digimon. And he wasn't going to be all that much use in the battle in his current state. I wasn't trying to be mean. It was honest. He couldn't do anything physically, and his digimon was inside of an egg.

Natsuni, who didn't have a digimon, Tatum, who only wanted to be with Michael, and Momoe, who just had a freaking baby, wouldn't be much help either. I was wondering how Jou was going to handle that. He'd have to leave his baby behind, because it just wasn't a safe environment for a newborn. I personally didn't think he was quite ready for it though.

That left us with Noriko—who I personally would enjoy leaving behind—and the rest of those with a crest. Willis was the only flaw in that plan but Mimi was right. We'd get him back even if we had to get his mother deported to do it.

"Okay," Taichi said looking to Kurayami. "Then we're ready to tackle problem four. Do you have any idea where they are?"

"No," she said. "I was supposed to meet him outside, but he lost connection with me. He left me behind before he told me where to find him again."

"You know what?" Sora said with a shaky voice. "I might not know where he is, but I think I've solved the mystery of what Dragomon is bringing to the table."

"And what's that?" Yamato asked. Sora was staring wide-eyed out the window and forgot to glare at him. Yamato seemed pleased by this at first, until he noticed her fear.

"They're outside," she whispered.

"Oh my God," Mimi said. "Shadows? How do we fight _them_? With flashlights?"

"Get outside," Jou said. "Momoe, stay with Nastuni and Tatum. The digimon will have to protect you and our baby."

"The sun is shining," Koushiro mentioned.

"Barely," Yamato noted, "It's going down as we speak."

"Still." Koushiro pressed, "I doubt flashlights would work. We'll need something a bit more potent. Tentomon try electricity. Your attack is basically concentrated lightning. It should work."

"On it," Tentomon said. "Super Shocker!"

I was surprised to see that it actually worked. The shadow was gone the second the lightning hit. Agumon, taking his cue from Tentomon sent a Pepper Breath at the shadow nearest to him. The same thing happened.

"They won't be so hard to take care of after all," I said thankfully.

"Blue Blaster!" Gabumon shouted hitting a shadow with his blue flame.

"How does Dragomon think shadows are a good enemy?" Taichi asked. He got his answer not long after. One shadow had slipped past our notice, and gotten close enough to attack. It wrapped its arms around Takeru from behind, lifting him off the ground, signalling for another shadow to make the mortal blow.

Yamato was staring in horror, yelling at Gabumon to do something, Tentomon and Agumon turned to take their own shots, but Jou got there first. He had started running the second it got Takeru. His daughter's birth must have invoked some sort of protective instinct. He was already the natural worrier of the group, he had just refocused that into a more protective father sort of vibe. He took on the role of Sora's male counterpart.

Whatever it was, he was great. He tackled the attacking shadow to the ground—proving they were solid sometimes, which was a plus from an attack point of view—before rolling off of the fallen shadow to knock the feet out from under Takeru's captor. The shadow had to let go of Takeru in order to catch himself before hitting the ground. Takeru got to his feet and sent a good strong kick towards the shadow. He and Jou quickly made their way into the scattering of our friends. Jou managed to move himself closer to Momoe and the baby, and Takeru was engulfed in Yamato's embrace.

"We might just have to step this thing up," Taichi said disappointed. He wanted us to save as much energy as possible, and it was a good plan, in theory. Executing it was proving to be quite difficult.

"What?" Takeru questioned, looking at a grey device in his hand. I recognized it immediately. I had one myself. As did everyone else here. But he was the only one to receive a message.

"Patamon," he said suddenly. "Digi-Armour Energize!"

"What?" Noriko said confused, hiding behind Impmon.

"**Patamon armour digivolve to… Pegasusmon!**"

"What the hell did he just do?" Noriko demanded.

"Here's the new plan," Takeru announced. "Everyone goes back inside. Gabumon, Agumon and Tentomon guard the doors, the other digimon stay with their partners just in case. Pegasusmon and I try to take out as many as possible with an aerial attack."

"I can fight," I said, rolling my eyes at Koushiro's shocked expression. "I want to go into law enforcement. Of course I'm taking self-defense classes. I'm pretty good at it too."

"You don't have to," Taichi said.

"But I do," I told him. "I helped Fanglongmon with his army. I didn't _once_ question my motions until Phoenixmon hit me with that, whatever it was. I need to do this."

"Stay alive then," Sora said. "No matter what Miyako says or does, she'd kill us if we let you hurt yourself like Iori."

"I won't," I promised. I saw Yamato and Kurayami debating whether they should stay and try to redeem themselves too, but I stopped them. "If you don't know what to do, you'll get yourself hurt."

That was the first thing my instructors had taught me.

They nodded and went inside with the rest of them. I stood alongside Agumon, waiting for the shadows to make their move. Fortunately for us, Takeru and Pegasusmon took the initiative.

"Star Shower!" Pegasusmon declared, shooting a cluster of bright, _glowing_ stars from his wings. It was brilliant, watching the numerous stars hit and destroy shadows left and right. The remaining shadows seemed to realize the danger of being out in the open, and started to advance upon those of us guarding the door. Agumon took the first few out, before there got to be too many of them too close. Then I was fighting. Punching and kicking and jabbing any way that I could. I realized quickly that a shadow could judge your next move, they could make that part of their body transparent just as you're about to hit it. That meant I had to fight a lot on instinct rather than using my brain. I had taken down three or four maybe, and pushed a few into the path of Tentomon's Super Shockers, but I wasn't at my place by the door anymore. I was kind of in the throng of shadows, next to one of the floor to ceiling windows the place had. I could see the others in there watching me fight, but I had to force that out of my head. I didn't have time to be self conscious.

"Equus Beam!" Pegasusmon called. Green beams of light passed by me on my right making me jump to the left a bit to keep from getting hit. That moment was all the shadow I was currently battling with needed to get the upper hand. He clenched the front of my shirt, and lifted me into the air, spinning to make me crash through the glass of the large window. I closed my eyes tightly and threw my hands over my face, hoping to keep from getting too many cuts from the broken glass. The shadow didn't put me down though. He kept his hold on me, high in the air. He appeared to be searching among the faces of the digidestined behind me and didn't like what he saw.

"They…are not...here," he wheezed in a low breathy voice.

"Who isn't here?" Taichi demanded, but he didn't get an answer. I wrapped my hands around the shadow's head when I noticed he wasn't going to explain, pulling it forward just as I rammed my foot into his chest. He fell to the ground, landing in the pile of broken glass. Agumon quickly incinerated him with a Pepper Breath.

But it was too late.

The other shadows had heard his declaration. They weren't going to stick around for the rest of the fight. They were quick in their retreat, melting into the ground as soon as they found a shadow left by the sun.

"Where'd they go?" Takeru asked as he and Patamon—who'd reverted from Pegasusmon already—came up to the window I'd been smashed through.

"We don't know," I told him. "He said something about them not being here."

"Fanglongmon?" he questioned.

"They sure as hell better not be after Hikari again," Taichi declared with a growl.

_**Iori:**_

"Rock Cracking!" Digmon tired. He created a fissure underneath the shadows, but it didn't do anything. He was floundering out there. I had grabbed the nearest tree branch at Hikari's suggestion and was beating on them the best I could. I was a good fighter, not to sing my own praise, but I couldn't keep up with their numbers. More and more kept coming, and Hikari wasn't glowing anymore. She couldn't do it. She was scared, and she was trying to support Nefertimon, but she couldn't fight them head on like I was. Terrerimon and Lopmon were trying to protect her in my stead while I was helping Digmon.

"Beam of Isis!" Nefertimon cried again, destroying a few more with her headdress. She was getting tired. There were only so many times she could use the same attack before it drained her. We had to do something fast.

I heard a cry, and turned to see a shadow had grabbed Lopmon by the ears and was holding her in the air, still trying to get to Hikari.

"Why are you doing this?" Hikari asked helplessly.

"Because…the master…told us…to," he said in a chilling voice.

"Dragomon?" Hikari asked.

"She…dares speak…the masters'…name!" another shadow cried.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to…"

"Your master sent you here? Why didn't he just come himself?" I asked moving swiftly and suddenly taking another shadow down with my tree branch while his guard was down.

"The master…he…is busy," the shadow told me.

"Doing what?" Terriermon asked.

"He is…going…to the…place…that the humans…are…hiding," he explained.

"No," Hikari gasped, pushing the shadow hard away from her. It dropped Lopmon, who rolled onto her feet.

"Buddy Blast!" Terriermon shouted, getting rid of him once and for all.

"Iori, Iori that's where Willis is going," Hikari cried. "His mom said that Mom is there too. And Mrs Izumi. I'm willing to bet that Koushiro's and my dads are there too now—oh God—unless they were trapped in the cave in that Fanglongmon created—"

"They're fine!" I said to her. I couldn't be sure, but I had to try to comfort her.

"And I know Michael's dad will be there." She continued, "Everyone's parents and siblings…"

"Mom and Grandpa," I whispered.

"Iori…" she said expecting me to know what to do. I hesitated only for a moment—during which I took down another shadow with quick precision.

"Go," I told her.

"What?" she questioned. "Iori we're supposed to protect each other."

"Go," I repeated. "Go and protect our families. That's what this scouting mission was for. I want Mom and Grandpa and everyone else to be safe. Find them, and protect them from Dragomon. Get Terriermon and Lopmon to Willis. He'll be able to help."

"But Iori, what about you?" she asked. She was starting to cry again.

"I'm going to be fine. I'm going to hold them off while you escape," I said.

"And after that?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," I said again.

"Iori…"

"Look Hikari," I said. "This needs to be done and I'm willing to make the sacrifice play here."

"You shouldn't have to!" she shouted. "You've done it once already. Why don't you let me do it this time?"

"I promised to protect you," I said loudly. "I promised Taichi and the fairy queen. I'm not going back on it. Gennai gave me his life Hikari, so that I could go on. Maybe this is what I'm supposed to use it for. I need to protect the digidestined just as he would have. That includes you. Now go."

"But," she whimpered.

"Go. Now," I repeated firmly. To prove my point, I turned my back on her and nodded at Nefertimon. I'd let her get Hikari to follow the plan. Until then, I had to help Digmon with the shadows. His hand to hand combat wasn't very refined. He needed whatever help I could give him. No matter how hopeless the situation really was.

I wasn't going to let Hikari know that though.

Nefertimon flew overhead, this time she had a crying Hikari on her back, and Terriermon and Lopmon waved at me. I didn't have time to wave back. I had too many shadows to worry about. Digmon and I were back to back, catching whatever shadows we could.

"Iori," Digmon said solemnly. "You said you'd warn me of stupid activity."

"It's not stupid," I said. "Nefertimon could only carry so much. I should have got you on there too, I know, but she wouldn't have left if I did."

"That's not what I mean," he told me.

"I know it's not," I replied. "But it's what has to happen. Mom and Grandpa need to stay safe."

"They need their son and grandson to come back to them too," he said.

"And I will," I said firmly.

"Alive," he reiterated.

"I _will_," I told him. "Now what should we do?"

"We can't beat them all," Digmon said firing his drills off without shouting a forewarning like usual.

"Then let's beat our way to safety," I told him.

"Let's just start running," he suggested. I didn't like it. I didn't want to leave them there to attack pedestrians, but I didn't have much of a choice. I hit the shadow closing in on my right with the branch, breaking it in two, while kicking the shadow in front of me.

"Great," I said looking at my broken weapon. "I'll lead the way then?"

"Go ahead," Digmon said.

I hated running. They were all trying to grab us, but I was ducking and dodging their hands. Digmon was just too big for them to get a good grip on, and too strong for them to hold back. But that wasn't the only problem

"They're following us!" Digmon shouted.

"No they're not," I told him. "They're getting ahead of us."

And they were. They would meld into whatever shadow they could get into, and appear ahead of us in the shadows of the trees, or the cars, or the buildings. We couldn't escape them.

"Stay in the sunlight Iori," Digmon ordered. I looked to the sun and saw that it was setting—it wouldn't be long until it was gone entirely, and the entire city was cast into shadows.

"That was the plan," I said, a little upset that I couldn't get close enough to a tree to get another weapon of choice.

A shadow reached out and grabbed my arm, catching me by surprise. Digmon passed me, not having had time to stop. I kicked the shadow as hard as I could, to make it relinquish its hold.

"Iori!" Digmon called for me. I was free again, and started running after him.

"Don't stop running!" I shouted.

_**Daisuke:**_

"Thunderbolt!" Raidramon shouted, taking out a row of like ten shadows with a massive bolt of lightning he fired from his mouth. He turned around and fired another bolt off of the blade on his nose. "Lightning Blade!"

"We might actually do this," Miyako said as though she couldn't bring herself to hope for it.

"Maybe," I agreed.

"Mach Impulse!" Halsemon used, releasing blades of pressurized wind from the wings on his helmet. They slashed through the shadows like a hot knife in butter. Two laser like beams shot from his eyes. "Eagle Eye!"

"Yes," I said as even more were taken down. We were finally getting this shadow population under control. Or we were, until Iori came running through the middle of what we had left. He and Digmon were running really fast, and it wasn't until the shadows tried to make a grab at him and he ducked under their arms only to knock them over with a few well aimed jabs, that I realized he had the same problem as us, only his was worse, because his digimon seemed totally useless in the situation.

"Iori, duck," Digmon shouted. Iori followed his instructions, and let Digmon slam the drill on his hand into the shadow's head.

"Iori," Miyako called. "Over here!"

"Miyako?" he asked, refusing to take his eyes off of the fight. It was a good call on his part, as the shadows seemed particularly eager to try their hands at fighting him at that moment.

"Me and Daisuke," she told him. "You found a lot of shadows too?"

"And I know where Dragomon is going," he supplied, surprising us both.

"He speaks…the master's…name," a shadow hissed. Digmon jammed a drill down his throat.

"Get used to it," Digmon told him as he dissipated.

"Where?" Miyako asked.

"The shelter that Odaiba's residents are using," he said with clenched teeth.

"Raidramon, help him out," I shouted.

"Electric Bite!" he called, taking a bit of a shadow that was sneaking up on Iori. His teeth pulsed with electricity, frying the shadow in an instant.

"What are we going to do about it?" Miyako asked.

"We're not doing anything until we deal with these shadows," I told her, rolling my eyes. "Raidramon, there's four to your left!"

"Thunder Blast!"

"Halsemon," Miyako called. "There are some behind Digmon."

"On it," Halsemon told her. "Udjat Gaze!"

He seemed to be hypnotizing his victims, making them fight one another instead of us.

"Where are they all coming from?" I asked in annoyance. We'd almost beat them all until Iori showed up with like a million more.

"I don't know," Iori said. "But Hikari and I couldn't beat them."

I didn't see Hikari anywhere, and my heart and mind were starting to race.

"Where is she now?" I demanded.

"On her way to get Lopmon and Terriermon to Willis," he said. He was breathing rather heavily. He wasn't going to last much longer out there. He'd just died not even an hour ago. He shouldn't even be doing this much physical labour.

"Isn't Willis in that centre that you said Dragomon is headed for?" Miyako realized with a squeak.

"Yeah," Iori panted. He rested a hand on his heart as he fell to his knee after a shadow attacked him. He only waited two seconds to catch his breath before jumping in to fight again.

I couldn't just watch him much longer. I'd have to run in there and kidnap him myself to keep him from overworking himself.

Damn it. Hikari had exchanged a terrible situation for a horrible one. She was going straight into Dragomon's path. What confused me more is that Iori let her go. Wasn't he supposed to be keeping her safe or something?

"Why don't they ever stop coming?" Iori wanted to know as he fell to his knees again. This time he didn't get back up as quickly. By the time he'd gotten to his feet, another shadow was there to knock him back down. Digmon beat that one, but a bunch of shadows decided to swarm the two of them. Digmon threw himself overtop of Iori to keep him safe. Soon all I could see was the shadows.

"Raidramon," I called out hurriedly. "Do something."

"Thunderbolt," he shouted, disintegrating the pile up of shadows. They disappeared, revealing a worn out Iori and Armadillomon.

We were a digimon down.

Great.

"Okay," I said. "Keep fighting Raidramon, you can do it. I know you can. I rushed over to help Iori to his feet, and nudged Armadillomon awake.

"Sorry I conked out there," Armadillomon apologized. "I wasn't able to hold the form."

"It's okay buddy," I told him. "Let's just get you two to Miyako, alright?"

"Are you okay Iori," Miyako wanted to know. She'd been too impatient to wait where she was, and had come over to meet us halfway.

"I'll be fine," he said. He'd had to have that a hundred times in the past hour at least. He sounded fed up by the question.

I tried to keep optimistic about everything, but it was hard. Raidramon was getting tired, I didn't know if he'd be able to keep that form up much longer. It wasn't using all that much energy, but it took an awful lot of concentration, something Veemon and I tended to lack. Halsemon was doing alright, but half of his attacks didn't really help in the grand scheme of things.

"Miyako, what are you doing?" Iori asked, drawing my attention away from the fight. Miyako was hovering in front of him, glaring at all of the shadows that thought to come even close to them.

"I'm protecting you," she said. "I can't watch you get hurt again, and you're too tired to fight anymore. So I'm going to protect you. I'll fight _for_ you."

"But you'll get hurt," he protested.

"I took Kendo classes from you," she said passing it off.

"But you quit before you learned anything because you thought learning basic positions was boring," he reminded her.

"Halsemon!" she shouted, unable to continue her and Iori's squabble. I looked over and saw that a bunch of shadows had latched onto Halsemon's four legs, determined to take him out of the sky. They pulled his legs in different directions, pulling so hard that he started glowing and reverted to Hawkmon. On the plus side, the glowing from the de-digivolving was bright enough to destroy a few of them. Hawkmon managed to fly out of there before it became too difficult.

There were so many shadows left though. Way more than Raidramon could handle. He was ready to go back to being Veemon any minute.

Think Daisuke, think…

But I couldn't come up with a plan. Not fast enough anyway. Raidramon was taken down by two shadows that came up from the shade of a tree and latched on to him before I could warn him about them. There was another bright glow that killed them, but revealed Veemon standing in Raidramon's place.

"Daisuke," he called nervously. "What do I do now?"

I looked at him and then I looked at the shadows that were closing in on him.

"Screw Taichi," I decided. "Digivolve!"

"**Veemon digivolve to… ExVeemon!**"

"**ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!**"

Maybe an ultimate would be able to show the shadows who was boss. They all seemed to get it in their head that that had to destroy my digimon before they'd be able to get to any of us anyway. This could save Miyako and Iori as well as Hawkmon and Armadillomon. The shadows circled around him, waiting for him to make his first move. AeroVeedramon contemplated his arsenal.

"V-Breath Arrow!" he shouted, letting a V shaped blast of fire wind its way out of his mouth. It didn't last long, but in the second I saw it, it burned a bunch of shadows out of existence. I knew AeroVeedramon was a good choice.

"Magnum Crasher!" he yelled, trying out another attack that involved punching the shadows with glowing fists. It was actually working. We were so going to win, and then everyone would be safe and we could run after Hikari before she got herself blown up or something.

"What are they doing?" Armadillomon asked.

"They're trying to beat him," I said.

"No," Hawkmon said. "They're changing something. I'm sure of it."

I watched the shadows closely. Hawkmon was right. They weren't going for the obvious attack. They were getting as close as possible without actually touching him, and they were layering themselves. I was confused to say the least. And then the lights went out. The sun had set, and the protection of the sunlight was gone completely—we were more in danger than I could have thought imaginable.

Without warning, the first three rows of shadows jumped on him, trying to drag him down. I watched in horror as his knees buckled.

"Dragon Impulse!" he screamed, launching a dragon shaped shockwave that threw them all off of him, but there were too many more waiting in the wings. He couldn't keep them off. I watched my best friend get buried under shadow after shadow and I couldn't help it. I ran towards him, trying to pull the shadows off of him.

"Let him out!" I shouted. "You have to let him out."

"Daisuke," Miyako whimpered.

"No," I screamed. "You can't lose. I can't lose you. Get up, please. Keep fighting!"

I didn't get an answer. All I got was pity from the others. Iori was trying not to, since he hated pity, but it was there. I could see it. But they didn't understand. I didn't deserve their pity. He was going to be alright. He _had_ to be.

"Veemon!" I cried. "I can't do it alone!"

Still nothing.

I sank to my knees. I didn't care what the shadows did to me. I sent Veemon into this. It was my fault that he lost. I deserved everything they gave me.

How could I think I could do this? We needed the team. I wasn't the strongest or the bravest, or the best leader. I was a team player. I needed to the team. I needed Veemon. _He_ was my best teammate.

I could see the shadows were still trying to climb on top of him. It wasn't enough to smother him, they had to keep going. And they were glowing too, which didn't make any sense since light attacks defeated them.

"Daisuke," Miyako called cheerily. How could she be so cheerful? I was miserable. First I turned evil disappointing Veemon and now, when I'd just gotten him back, I go and make such a stupid mistake.

"Daisuke, look," Iori ordered.

"I am," I said miserably.

"If you were, you'd see that _someone_ is digivolving underneath all of that," he told me.

"What?" I asked, looking back to the glowing. He was digivolving. He wasn't dead? It did explain the weird glowing that seemed to contradict the shadow's very existence…

"**AeroVeedramon digivolve to… UlforceVeedramon!**"

"UlforceVeedramon," I said, testing it out. He sounded awesome.

"Ulforce Saber!" he cried, and I saw the tip of a glowing saber through the pile of shadows. He must have spun in a circle, because the whole middle layer of shadows was disintegrated, and I saw my first glimpse of my mega level digimon. He looked like a knight, with a cape and armour and sword. All that was missing was a shield.

"You go, UlforceVeedramon!" I cheered him on at the top of my lungs. "You can do it!"

"I know I can, Daisuke," he said, which I thought was not very humble at all. "Because you believe in me."

That fixed that then.

"Can you really beat them?" Miyako asked.

"Of course," UlforceVeedramon said. "You might wish to duck."

I did as he asked, not wanting to risk being obliterated and making him revert to his baby level or something like Armadillomon did when Iori was hurt.

"Tensegrity Shield!" he announced.

"There's the shield," I muttered as a holy like aura released from his left wrist. There was a bracelet or something there that must be its source. The light pushed further and further away from him as though it were a barrier, destroying every shadow in its path. Soon it was too bright for me to look at and I had to duck my head down into my arms.

"Is it over?" Miyako asked after a few moments of silence.

"It is," UlforceVeedramon said. "You can open your eyes now."

And I did. I opened them to lay eyes on the coolest digimon I'd ever seen in my entire life. How did I get so lucky as to have him as a partner?

"We did it," I said breathily. "We survived."

"Barely," Iori said. "But we did."

"That was great," I told my newest partner.

"It was all because of you," he said.

"Naw, it was all you," I told him.

Every shadow was gone now, and I looked to the others to see them all smiling—except Miyako. What was wrong? She was staring out into the distance. I followed her gaze and saw a tall dark figure spin and fade into the darkness.

"What was that?" I asked her.

"We have to get moving," Miyako said, ignoring me. "I'm sorry, but we don't have time for a break. We have to get to Taichi and the others and tell them what we know, and then we have to get to that centre before Dragomon hurts those innocent people."

"And Hikari," Iori added quickly. I mentally added Willis to that list.

"Right. We'd better get a move on then," I said, pausing for a moment. "Does anyone remember where the restaurant is?"

_**Yuuko:**_

"CAREFUL!" I shot to Yoshie as she opened the cardboard box that held our bombs. Muffins... muffin-bombs. She was doing it quite hastily and was literally going to blow us both up. I had to punch a very burly looking man to get up to the roof, he told us it wasn't safe, but after he ran away crying I figured he wouldn't mind too much if we just slipped up here. There were multiple giant spiders up on the roof, but after being controlled like a marionette by Puppetmon, I figured these poisonous spiders couldn't be too bad... could they?

Well as Yoshie began tossing muffins toward them I was a little sceptical... none of them were exploding. I was ready to take her and run to safety, but before I could, one of the spiders crawled toward the muffin.

"What's it doing?" I asked Yoshie nervously.

"It's... eating it?" She asked me, she was being no help here of course. She knew no better than I did what was going to happen.

But the moment the long purple tongue of the spider touched the muffin it exploded. I threw my hands to my ears quickly and clamped my eyes shut tight as the explosion set off a chain reaction, causing the rest of Yoshie's muffins to explode also. When the vibrations of the building stopped I opened my eyes and looked around. There were clouds of smoke everywhere. I felt bad for a moment, killing the spiders. I hadn't even thought about it really, they weren't doing anything wrong... they were just sitting on top of the safe house... suspiciously. But then again, they were giant spiders with skulls emblazoned on their heads... so I was pretty sure they were evil.

Slowly the clouds of smoke dispersed and I was very thankful that I'd accidentally dropped the first batch of them instead of feeding them to Daisuke, Taichi and Hikari like I'd been intending to do. That would have been ... messy.

"They're gone." Yoshie said, shocked. I knew why she was so surprised. Our children had made it very clear that the digimon were too strong for humans to take on—they'd made it clear that they were the only ones capable of destroying them because they had digimon partners to help them out—but we showed them with our baking skills... that sounded incredibly lame. I'd have to be sure to lie to Taichi and tell him that I found a magical sword that I used to destroy them all with.

"Is that all of them?" Yoshie asked, "Because if so, we made this a much bigger deal than it needed to be."

"Of course it's not all of them." I told her, rolling my eyes. "That guy the kids were talking about, Fanglongmon, he's sent a bunch of digimon to this world—and even after that, the worlds combined. So every digimon who ever existed would be here, on Earth. I just hope we've made enough muffins.

"There's some!" Yoshie exclaimed, pointing to the streets.

She was right. There seemed to be a very angry mob of digimon of different sizes coming toward us. I looked to the box of muffins and smiled. I had a pretty good plan...

"There's more." Yoshie said monotonously. She was clearly not pleased to be surrounded by creatures that could kill us with a single blow. Though I didn't really blame her.

At the back of this second group of digimon was a very large sea creature. He had a large ugly head and two red dragon-like wings. I knew who this was though... Hikari had drawn him before whilst sleep walking. She'd done it multiple times to be exact... And in the morning when I asked Taichi who it might be, he told me it was Dragomon.

"I don't think we have enough muffins for this." Yoshie said nervously.

_**Tatum:**_

"Where did they go then?" Natsuni asked in a whisper to Goblimon who was standing with Monodromon at the kitchen door as Natsuni and I looked out the window to the main room where the demons had attacked. The room was void of all shadows and the others were talking about where the shadows had gone.

"No idea." I told her simply.

"Are we safe then?" Goblimon asked.

"I think so." Natsuni told him. "Thank you for protecting us." Both Monodromon and Goblimon stepped back from the door and moved toward Natsuni and the three of them moved toward the other side of the kitchen toward the freezers.

I looked toward Michael and smiled at him. He was shocked that I was smiling and tried to smile back. I was still mad at him, but I couldn't show it. His partner had died.

"I'm really sorry about Betamon Michael." I told him slowly.

"It's not your fault. It's Sora's. No—" He cut himself off, "Not Sora... that's not fair. It was an accident." He looked down toward the blue egg in his hands, Betamon's, that rested next to the other one, the white and pink egg. "It's Fanglongmon's fault."

I sat down next to him, smiling at him. He smiled back at me feebly and then looked back down to the eggs. He was silent for a bit then, not sure how to respond or what to do.

"Luckily digimon come back though." Michael said quietly. "They're like boomerangs... living—awesome boomerangs." I laughed at him and he smiled. "I wonder if this one is new, or if it is coming back." He said, looking down at the white and pink egg.

"Where did it come from?" I asked him.

"I don't know." He admitted. "I just got it from... somewhere—I don't remember." I nodded. "So what are you doing here?" He asked me, "In Japan I mean."

"I noticed things were going wrong." I told him as he set the two eggs down next to each other. "I went to your house to look for you but you were in Japan so I took your dad and Willis' mom to find you and Willis, which I am sorry for—for Willis I mean."

"Why did you come to find us though?" He asked, "Did you need protecting?" He winked at me.

I shook my head. "No... I just didn't want anything bad to happen to you while we were doing our stupid dramatic flings. I didn't want either of us to die without having the other know how we feel."

"So what are you saying?" He asked me, "You forgive me."

"More than that." I said slowly, "I want to stop being so dramatic. Everyone knows us as the on and off couple. But I want to be together... not confused."

"I want to be together... with you... too." Michael said, looking up to me with his ocean coloured eyes.

"And I love you." I told him, staring him right in the eyes.

"I love you too..." Michael smiled as I leaned toward him and kissed him.

"You know..." He said as I pulled away, "This really wasn't _so_ bad of a day after all."

I leaned forward and kissed him again.

"You guys are _so_ cute!" Natsuni squeaked. "It's like a movie scene! I'm really glad that I witnessed this! Are you two the main characters?"

"No." Michael told her simply. "I can't be a main character. My digimon is dead, everyone hates me and I'm of no use to the rest of this battle."

"That doesn't mean you won't pull through in the end." Natsuni said, "This is like... the little dip in morale before you go crazy and save the day! Before you become the hero."

"I'm no hero." Michael said. I took his hand and rubbed it gently... I felt really bad for him.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Willis is back next chapter, taking over the narration, with Michael and Ken's assistance. How with the battle with Dragomon go, will they defeat him now, or will he prove too much? And more importantly, will the others make it there in time? Rei also makes an appearance next chapter with her final piece, helping to tell the story of their battle against Wisemon. It's all escalating for the upcoming finale. I hope you're ready!


	46. Words of Wisdom

**Y/N:** This chapter was difficult for me to write, and I don't know why. The two parts I wrote were interesting enough… Oh well. Here it is, finally complete! Please review!

**U/N:** Soooooo this is the introduction to the final conflict before the finale, so it's good and stuff... but yeah... i likes writing as Michael, but the Willis part literally Willis-ed me out because i've been writing a lot of Willis for something else... and just so much Willis :P but i hope you like it :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 46: Words of Wisdom**

_**Ken:**_

"How do we find Hikari then?" Yamato asked Taichi, who was freaking out still over the shadows. He was sure they were after his sister. When wasn't something from the Dark Ocean after Hikari?

"She will be fine," Kurayami said. "Doesn't she _glow_ or something?"

"Yes," Taichi said, relaxing his shoulders a bit. "She does. She'll be okay until we find her. Right. Let's move out. Okay?"

"Not okay."

I turned to see Daisuke walking next to a digimon that might have been a knight. I supposed it _had_ to be Veemon, but when did Daisuke get the ability to get to mega? Iori was leaning on his shoulder looking thoroughly worn out, with Armadillomon by his side. Hawkmon was still flying through the air. I took that as a good sign. He wasn't exhausted anyway. And Miyako, my Miyako, was standing on Iori's other side, looking worried and tired and beautiful. She even managed to pull off the dirt smudges on her cheeks and the leaves and twigs in her hair.

"What do you mean?" Taichi wanted to know. "And you," he said walking up to Iori and grabbing him by the front of his shirt. "Where is Hikari?"

"I don't know at the moment," he said with a strained voice. He was breathing heavily. My guess was that they were attacked as well. Maybe by the same shadows as us, and he needed to fight like I did. "I sent her away."

"Why would you send her away? You said you'd _protect _her!"

"We were attacked," he said, glaring at Taichi. Taichi immediately let go of his shirt, and Iori moved away from Daisuke's support. "Dragomon had shadow creatures that he was using to distract us while he headed to the community centre. I think he's after our families, friends, the people of Odaiba. He's going for them. Willis is there too. Hikari noticed it first. She took Lopmon and Terriermon with her. She's going to help him. It was a good thing too. If she stayed with me she wouldn't be alive right now. There were a _lot_ of shadows."

That didn't make sense.

"They were looking for someone," I told him. "They specifically looked at each one of us and told me that they weren't here. Whoever they were looking for. It was one of you guys. They left us alone after that."

"God I wish I was here then," Miyako said with a sigh. "It was terrifying. They almost killed Veemon."

"They almost killed Armadillomon," Iori added.

"And you," Armadillomon insisted.

"All of us fighting," Hawkmon said before they could argue. "We were very thankful when UlforceVeedramon came."

"You are most welcome," the knight—UlforceVeedramon I supposed—said. It could have sounded very cocky, but he was so gentle as he said it. It was as if he were embarrassed by the praise.

"That's great that you're all still alive," Jou said. "But what are we supposed to do about Dragomon?"

"Go after him," Iori said.

"Right now?" Mimi asked. "Do we have the fire power to destroy him?"

"We'll have to," Sora told her. "We have to go save our families, or at the very least, lead Dragomon away."

"He could already be attacking," Daisuke interrupted. "Willis and Hikari _may_ be able to handle this, but we have to get moving soon. Anymore discussion can be had on the way."

"You're right," Taichi said. "Of course you're right. Sorry, I'm just freaking out right now."

"We understand," Yamato told him. "She'll be fine."

"How can you say that?"

"Because she's got Willis," Agumon said. "Terriermon, Lopmon and Gatomon. And she's got us."

"Thanks," Taichi muttered, patting the top of Agumon's head. "Everybody, get in the bus!"

"I can't," Momoe said. Miyako gasped, realizing where this was going. "I have a baby to look after. I can't go running into this battle. He might use me to get to any of you. It's safer for me to stay here."

"Yeah," Jou said sadly. He walked over to Momoe and his baby. Leaning down, he planted a kiss on his daughter's head. "Be good." He chuckled dryly. His daughter couldn't do much of anything yet, she was too new, so it sounded funny to be saying something like that. "Keep her safe, Momoe. Keep yourself safe."

"I will Jou," she said with a smile. "You stay safe too. Our little girl needs a father. You better be coming back."

"I'll try," he told her. "But I can't make any promises."

"I know," she said sadly. She was holding herself together well, but I could see she was ready to crack. She didn't want us to watch it happen though.

"I'll stay with her," Michael offered. "I don't…_have_…a digimon right now." His voice cracked while saying it. He cursed under his breath for not staying together like Momoe. "But I'll do what I can."

"You'll have me and Monodromon," Tatum said. "You won't be doing it alone."

"Right," Taichi said. "Okay. Four down, five if you count the baby."

"And I do," Jou joked.

"We can do this though," he said. "We're just covering our bases."

"And we're not losing too much impact, only Monodromon is on that list out of the digimon," Sora added.

"And Goblimon," Natsuni said softly. "It's too scary for me. I'm sorry. I'm not ready for this just yet. I'm not a digidestined. I'm just a kid that got caught up in this mess. It's not a movie. I can see that, Iori keeps running himself into the ground. I can't watch that happen. I'm going to stay behind too."

"Natsuni," Iori whispered. "It's okay. You don't have to fight a battle that isn't yours to fight."

Suddenly she was hugging him. He was avoiding Hawkmon's eye very adamantly, and fighting a blush that all the stares were giving him. Taichi and Daisuke elbowed each other and were whispering jokes that made Iori glare at them.

"You promised," Natsuni said. "So you _have_ to come back. You promised to go to that action movie with me this Friday."

"If the theatres are still open," Iori mentioned.

"Yeah," she said with a breathy laugh. "Be safe."

"You too," he murmured as she pulled away.

Everyone seemed to turn to Noriko as one. Waiting for her to speak up, and praying that she would.

"What?" she said. "Impmon and I are totally coming with you."

"Yay," Iori muttered to Jou sarcastically.

"Get on the bus," Takeru shouted. "Hikari's in trouble and we've said our goodbyes. Get on the bus!"

And he pretended he didn't like Hikari…

Who was he kidding?

We all piled on the bus anyway. UlforceVeedramon didn't fit through the front door, so we had to open the emergency exit at the back to get him inside. I wasn't scared, like I thought I should be. But I wasn't excited either. I was numb. I'd had too much excitement in the past however many hours to be able to handle anything other than the numbness. Most of the others sat in silence too. It was nice. To have a break from all of the chaos, and to just sit there and reflect in my thoughts I mean. I knew there was a very good chance that I wasn't going to be coming out of this. Iori had shown that to me. Opened all of our eyes to the very _real_ danger that we put ourselves in. I hadn't truly thought too much of it. We'd always charged into battle, without thought or consequence. It wasn't real to me before. But the danger grew with us. It seemed the older we got, the more serious everything was that we faced. Maybe it wasn't true, and we were just too young to recognize the danger and had a truck load of luck on our side. But there was a chance we wouldn't win this, not with everyone intact.

And I was going into it with Miyako mad at me.

That was something I knew I'd regret right through the entire battle, whether I lived or…not. Because the danger was very real for her too. It wasn't just me. It was all of us, and I would do anything within my power to keep her from getting hurt. I couldn't lose her. I could only hope that I hadn't already lost her because of my weakness.

I noticed Yamato looking at Sora longingly, but shook his head. Instead, he moved to the seat beside his little brother. Takeru's fists were shaking, he was so angry and hurt and confused. He'd just lost his mother, almost lost Iori, and 'lost' Hikari to Willis all in the last day approximately. He was at his wit's end. Yamato had made some very stupid decisions, but I thought it showed real promise that he was comforting his little brother rather than staring—pining really—after his ex-girlfriend. I was sure it was official. Sora would not date him anymore. Not now. Not until he could prove that he wasn't an 'idiot' in her eyes.

Iori was tired. And he kept looking at Noriko, like he was going to do something he might regret, but was going to do it anyway. Noriko, for her part, was actually doing a fairly good job at not being annoying. She was chattering with Impmon, and glancing out of the corner of her eye at Iori, looking positively elated to find he was looking at her too. I had a feeling I knew where this was going, but wasn't sure what to think about it. I didn't _want_ to think about it.

Mimi was sitting behind Jou, resting one of her hands on his shoulder. It was a fine demonstration of their friendship. They knew each other's needs as well as their own. She could tell that he needed support as he left his new life, his new family behind. She on the other hand just needed to know she wasn't alone. She was drawing on his presence in order to gain the confidence to go on.

Taichi was bouncing in his seat. He was out of his mind, worrying over his little sister, and nothing Agumon did could help him calm down. Hawkmon was trying to keep Miyako from her silent panic attack. I wanted to go over and help her out of it, like I usually did, but she was mad at me, and my presence would just make it worse.

Sora, in an attempt to drive Yamato further away, had sat right next to Koushiro, across the aisle from Mimi, with Palmon, Biyomon, Gomamon and Tentomon in the seats behind them. She did quite well in blocking Yamato out, but did an even better job at making Koushiro a ball of nerves and awkwardness. He kept looking at Mimi and then at Sora trying to convey that no, he did not appreciate her sitting right there. If I hadn't been so numb, I might have laughed at the reality of it. It took almost certain death for Koushiro to want to admit anything to Mimi, and when he had the opportunity, Sora was in between them. And she'd been trying her hardest to get this to happen too.

Daisuke was seated at the back, behind everyone, but beside Kurayami. Gabumon was just in front of them, the only digimon away from his partner, but he didn't look upset by it. He really understood what was important for Yamato at the moment.

Kurayami looked to be crying, trying to hold the tears back though. Daisuke was holding her hand, talking quietly to her, and gesturing to UlforceVeedramon every once in awhile. Said digimon would even input to the conversation, though his comments were few and far between. Apparently, along with the new stoic appearance, came a sedated personality. Or maybe UlforceVeedramon had the same sort of conclusions I did about this whole mess.

"Ken?" Wormmon said, distracting me from my rather upsetting observations.

"We'll be fine," I told him, trying to convince myself.

"No," he said. "That's not it. I wanted you to know that I will always be at your side. I will always protect you, even if I can't agree with what you're doing, I will try to protect you from everything, even yourself if I have to."

"Thanks," I said, wincing at just how much I'd put him through as the Kaiser, and again less than an hour ago with Fanglongmon. He was truly my most dedicated and loyal friend. I wouldn't be where I was without him.

"I promised you," he said.

"I don't remember—"

"You don't remember that adventure, and that's okay," Wormmon told me. "But I did promise you I would always watch over you. Protect you. And I will, to my dedigitizing breath."

"I don't want you to die for me," I told him.

"I will be reborn again," he said softly. "And when I am, I will be able to continue to keep that promise."

"But—"

My protest was cut short when Jou swerved the bus suddenly. The tires squealed louder than I'd ever thought a bus's tires _could_.

"What the hell!" Taichi shouted.

"Are you trying to kill us before Fanglongmon gets a chance?" Yamato wanted to know.

"Are you okay?" Mimi cried.

"Is something on the road?" Patamon asked.

Jou couldn't answer. All of his efforts were being focussed into controlling the steering wheel. I threw one hand onto the back of the seat in front of me, and clutched my own seat with the other, to keep from falling into the aisle. Sora hadn't caught herself in time, and was sprawled half on her seat and half on the floor. Iori had actually caught Noriko in the process of catching himself. Otherwise, everyone seemed fine.

"Is everyone alright?" Jou called from the front.

"Yeah," Daisuke said. "But what was that?"

"Really Jou, you're not h-helping," Miyako stammered.

"You're going to want to look at this," he said his eyes never leaving whatever it was he saw outside. He was craning his neck to see it.

"What is it?" Gabumon asked.

"Oh. My. God," Mimi gasped, flinging open the bus doors and running into the street. Sora, who Mimi had jumped over, clambered after her followed by Koushiro, Tentomon, Biyomon and Palmon. Gomamon stopped to see if Jou was okay, before heading outside himself. I couldn't help but be curious. It seemed to have ended my numbness in any case. There was a rush of people trying to get to the door, to see what was drawing their attention.

I was behind Armadillomon in line, and I did not expect the sight I saw. At all. A giant, golden dragon was flying overhead. The very dragon we were trying to find. The one that I secretly never wanted to encounter again. And after the battle we were sure to have, hopefully the one I'd never have to see again.

"Fanglongmon," Kurayami said in a strangled voice.

"Should we follow him?" Palmon asked.

"We can't," Taichi said. "My sister…"

"We can't lose this opportunity," Kurayami pointed out.

"My sister is important," Taichi protested.

"I know she is," Takeru said. "But Kurayami's right. He killed my mom. We can't risk losing track of him. We don't know how long it will take us to find him again. He could kill loads of people between now and then."

"But Hikari and Willis _do_ need backup," Jou commented.

"So we break into teams," Mimi declared. "But whoever goes after Fanglongmon is _not_ allowed to attack unless absolutely necessary. We can't risk it until we're all together again. And that includes Willis, Terriermon, Lopmon, Hikari and Gatomon. We need them."

"You're right," Yamato said with a sigh.

"Who will go, and who will track Fanglongmon?" Biyomon asked.

"I should follow Fanglongmon," Iori said.

"Just so you can get hurt some more?" Miyako asked.

"No," Iori said, shaking his head. "_She_ said he can't get into my mind. I've never heard him in my head either, so I believe her. He can't see me coming."

"But you're not going alone," Daisuke told him. "And he _can_ hear everyone else."

"It does seem to be the safest of the options," Armadillomon decided.

"I'm staying with Iori," Miyako and Noriko declared at once. Noriko glared at Miyako, clearly thinking she was going to have even more competition. She couldn't be more wrong. I hoped anyway.

"I will not let Fanglongmon escape us," Kurayami said sending a withering look at the monster.

"Me either," I decided.

"I'll stay with you too," Daisuke said rounding off the group.

"I hope we'll have enough to stop Dragomon," Sora said glancing at Koushiro, Mimi, Jou and Taichi. She completely overlooked Yamato, but I felt as though she did that purposefully.

"I can use my mega level," Tentomon commented. "If Wormmon is staying behind anyway."

"Right," I said. "So you guys will take the bus, and we'll go by foot?"

"Sounds about right," Taichi said. His foot was tapping impatiently. He still really wanted his sister safe.

"Get going," Daisuke told them. "We've got some detective work to do."

"Sounds like Ken's up then," Miyako joked. She frowned after though, having remembered she was mad at me. I took it as a good sign for the future in any case.

And she was right. I wanted to be a detective, more than anything. I wanted to be able to help people by finding the clues that they missed. I was exposed to the extraordinary on a daily basis with the Digital World and memories of the digimon within it. I didn't think inside the box anymore. It was impossible to do that when most people would think I was crazy if I told them about all the times I'd saved the world or nearly died. Of course, I also know how a bad guy thinks too, with my…past being as it was.

"They're gone," Hawkmon declared, pulling me out of my thoughts. He was right. I hadn't even noticed them piling back into the bus, or heard when the bus was driven off.

I felt kind of stupid when I realized I was the only one that hadn't noticed…

"He's going north," Kurayami commented.

"I thought that was west…" Daisuke said with a grin.

"North," she said firmly. "And we're going to have to move quickly if we wish to keep up with him."

"Who put her in charge?" Noriko asked, rolling her eyes.

"Oh my God," Iori snapped. "Shut up. Okay? She's way more experienced than you are. You're only here because you wanted to be, but _she_ has a crest, that makes her a chosen child. Gennai chose her for a reason."

"I just wanted to know why someone evil is leading us," she said softly. "Fanglongmon might still be using her, getting her to lure us to him when it isn't safe to attack him."

"Decent point," Miyako said. "But we're still doing as she said. It's what we told the others that we would do. If we lost him because we didn't listen to her, we won't know what to do."

"Lead us, Kurayami," Daisuke said holding his hand out for her to take. She flushed but took it, holding her head high, letting Noriko's comments just roll off of her.

I walked behind them, and I knew Iori was following us too. He wasn't angry with us. Despite him being there during the actual evil moments. It was nice, knowing we had his confidence. I could practically _hear_ Noriko fuming as she watched Iori come after us. Maybe I was wrong with my earlier hypothesis. Iori clearly didn't like Noriko in the slightest. To my knowledge, he couldn't stand her. Iori wasn't one to go against his base instincts. I couldn't believe I'd guessed he'd regretted turning her down.

We passed empty police cars, and torn buildings. It was all getting rather repetitive; not boring—because it was so horrific—but it became what I was expecting.

I could hear Noriko talking persistently to both Iori and Miyako, trying to get them to see sense. Iori was adamant about her not knowing what she was talking about, because she had not been there. Fanglongmon wasn't after her, she didn't know what it was like. Miyako was even defending us, not _me_ in particular, but the group as a whole. That meant she was defending me in some small way.

It was pathetic just how happy that made me.

"Hello, hello, hello."

I stopped in my tracks. I knew that voice. I feared that voice. It gave me nightmares, you know, if I was willing to admit I _had_ nightmares. He scared me to death. He wanted me, only _me_, and he wanted me dead. It didn't get much scarier than that, having some assassin digimon intent on killing you. An assassin who's only goal was to please himself. He wasn't a part of someone else's agenda.

"Daemon," Miyako gasped. She reached out to hold my hand, but something stopped her. I really could have used her support in that moment too.

"Ahh!" Noriko screamed.

"Shut up," Kurayami hissed, which just made her scream louder. She was terrified of Fanglongmon, Kurayami and Daemon. She was not in an ideal situation.

"Do you _want_ Fanglongmon to hear you?" Daisuke snapped.

That shut her up.

"What do you want?" Iori asked Daemon.

"Nothing _you_ could provide," he said, raising his hand. Said hand was engulfed in a high-temperature _hell_ flame, one that was fast on target and aimed at Iori.

"Run!" I shouted. "Scatter."

I didn't need to tell them twice. Miyako and Noriko grabbed Iori, pulling him out of the way, down a different street, with Hawkmon, Impmon and Armadillomon covering their tracks. Kurayami, after some prodding from Daisuke, ran after them. Takeru and Daisuke ran off a different direction, taking both UlforceVeedramon and Patamon back the way we came, after Daisuke had whispered something to Takeru. But I didn't run. I couldn't. He would chase after me. If I followed any of my friends, they would get hurt because of me. I tried to get Wormmon to run, but he was too stubborn.

"Now, isn't this nice?" he asked me. "We're all alone. It's much more exciting, isn't it, to finally have this talk, face to face."

"I wouldn't call it _exciting_…"

"You wouldn't, no," he said with a smile. "I, however, find it positively thrilling. I have you right where I want you at last. And I get to know that you failed. You did not save your friends, nor your family, or even the worlds. Fanglongmon has rule over them all. He has the keys."

"He doesn't have the keys. My friends have them," I told him, biting my tongue afterwards for doing so. Now he'd be after them.

"You really think that there are a mere five keys? You digidestined _are_ arrogant. You have keys, yes, but they are useless to Fanglongmon now. Earth, the Dark Ocean, the Digital World, they are all one now. Your little friend, he has the key to allow Fanglongmon to rule the last of the worlds he is capable of ruling."

"What do you gain from him ruling?" Wormmon dared to ask.

"Nothing but the pleasure of killing you," he told me.

Sounds of gunshots filled the air. A bullet whizzed by me. Wormmon shouted for me to duck. The bullet hit Daemon's shoulder, causing him to call out in agony, however brief it was. It did not take him long to turn his angry eyes towards searching for the source.

"Eat lead!" Daisuke shouted. Takeru and he were both pointing handguns at Daemon, daring him to move even an inch.

Where in the worlds did they find guns?

"I'll be back for you once more, Ken Ichijouji. And next time you _won't_ make it out alive."

With that, Daemon disappeared into a burst of hell flames.

"So, where'd you get the guns?" I asked trying not to shake in my boots.

"Cop car," Takeru said. "Won't this make a great story to tell the kids?"

"Ken," Wormmon whispered. "I won't let him get you."

"You always know what to say," I told him with a small—only partially forced—smile.

_**Michael:**_

"They're gone..." Natsuni said, gazing out the window with her head in her hands, watching the bus as it drove off. "Now what?"

"Now we wait." Momoe said as she sat herself down at a table in the corner, laying her child on the table.

"For how long?" Natsuni asked her, turning to her longingly.

"For as long as it takes for them to win." Momoe shot her a smile. Natsuni jumped to her feet and walked over to Momoe.

"Momoe," She said slowly, sitting down next to her, "You're a really optimistic person. And honestly, I think you're a little bit crazy. But I just wanted you to know that I'm very glad that I've met you."

I shook my head and sighed, leaning against the wall and staring at the two eggs in front of me. Why was everyone so happy. Nothing happy had happened yet. I supposed when the crazed evil digimon were destroyed—then there would be a reason for us to be happy. But as it stood, there really wasn't. Gennai was dead, Takeru's mother was dead, Iori had almost died, the entire city was literally destroyed, torn down and turned to rubble, and Betamon was killed. Happy things that had happened? Well we got our digimon back after three years of not having them. That's something... that's the _only_ something.

"Michael, cheer up." Tatum said, patting my shoulder. "We'll find a way to make this all better. All of it. And when we do, Betamon will be there to help us out."

I stared at her slowly before smiling. She was right—she was always right. 'Happiness could be found even in the darkest of times... if one only remembered to turn on the light' as my favourite wizard would say.

I pulled myself to my feet and looked around. "So what do you guys want to do?"

"Nothing?" Momoe suggested. She looked exhausted as she smiled to her baby, even after that attack thing that Monzaemon had done.

I looked to Tatum to find that she was gone, talking to Goblimon off in a corner with a giant smile on her face as she nodded and took mental notes. I rolled my eyes and smiled at her.

But everything seemed perfect. A baby—happy people—everything was fine for us. Did that mean we were out of the Adventure? I knew that in television shows that once a character was no longer needed that they were slowly pushed to the side until they were cut completely—either that or just killed off.

I was starting to think like Natsuni...

But then again, that was giving me some motivation. I wasn't ready to be lowered to a special guest star—I was a regular character—a star. And I was going to keep it that way! Only I had no ideas of what exactly I was planning on doing.

And that's when it happened. There was a loud roar coming from outside—it wasn't just a roar, it sounded like a series of grumbles and shrieks and noises.

Momoe had scooped her baby into her arms and rushed toward me as Natsuni and Goblimon hurried toward the window.

"There are digimon out there!" Natsuni said as she hurried toward Momoe. "Come on Momoe, let's get into the kitchen."

"I'll stay and fight." Goblimon said with a nod.

"R-right..." Natsuni said nervously. She led Momoe into the kitchen before running back and throwing her arms around Goblimon. "Be safe." She warned, "And don't fight unless you have to."

"I promise Natsuni." Goblimon nodded.

Tatum handed Natsuni the two digi eggs before allowing her to retreat back into the kitchen with Momoe and the nameless baby.

"Monodromon," Tatum said as she stood next to me. "It's time to digivolve."

He nodded and began to glow, and then grow into Airdramon. I looked to Tatum with my eyebrows raised and shook my head. "He doesn't exactly fit in here you know."

"You're right." She said slowly, "Should we get outside?"

"No, we should hide." I told her. "We shouldn't fight..." It was going against everything I had planned—I'd wanted to help out, and become a hero and a star but I couldn't do that. I didn't even have a digimon, and there was no way one champion digimon and a rookie could defeat the digimon out there. I hadn't seen them yet, but from what they sounded like, there was a lot of them.

"Fine." Tatum said flatly. "Airdramon, return to Monodromon and follow me to the kitchen." Tatum ordered taking my hand and dragging me toward the door where she kicked it open and the two of us slid down to a sitting position.

"Too many?" Natsuni asked. I nodded as Goblimon and Monodromon rushed into the room.

"They're coming in!" Goblimon hissed quietly as he stood watch at the door.

Natsuni and Tatum threw their hands over their mouths to keep their frightened breathing quiet. I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds in the dining hall. There was heavy breathing and footsteps—they were jingling footsteps, and it made me think of Santa Claus, but I knew that was too simple, and to nice. We'd have to stay quiet.

"They were here." A voice in the other room says. "Recently. We're close."

Tatum looked worried, but I couldn't see why. I knew it was scary—my heart was beating quickly and I was forced to hold my breath as my heart pounded in my ears, but whoever was out there thought we were gone. They thought we'd left, and soon they would too.

"Mwaa!"

All of us turned toward the small bundle of clothing in Momoe's arms as her eyes widened with fear, her arms wrapping around the child tighter.

Monodromon growled to the door as Goblimon readied himself to fight. Tatum wrapped her arms around Natsuni's to comfort her as the door was kicked open sharply.

"There you are!" The voice said simply.

"M...Meiyomon?" I said nervously as I took in the sight of the jester in the doorway. His purple and orange boots went up to his knees with a bell on the tip of each one, his poofy blue and green pants were tied tight with a black belt, and his red and yellow jacket was tied together with black strings. He was smiling at us through the caramel coloured hair that rested under his rainbow coloured hat.

"What's a Meiyomon?" Tatum asked, searching her brain for some information about this digimon.

"I'm a Meiyomon!" Meiyomon said with a grin, "And am I sure glad I found you guys!"

"Y-you're not going to k-kill us?" Natsuni said, still frightened.

"Of course not!" Meiyomon laughed. There was a collective sigh of relief about the room Meiyomon laughed. "I've come to help you all out—come on, let me show you something." He reached his hand out to me and pulled me to my feet. I turned to see Natsuni holding the eggs as Tatum helped Momoe to stand up, and then turned once more to Mieyomon as he led me and the others out into the dining hall, and then out the front door to the restaurant.

The sky was dark and starry, and—even though it reminded me of those shadows, and how scary everything was, and how those shadow demons could be out there anywhere at all—it was pretty.

"These are my new friends." Meiyomon said.

I turned sharply and let my jaw drop. There was a literal army of digimon behind him. The first ones I recognized were Dimojimon and Monzaemon and the army that Jou and Momoe had helped escape. And as I scanned the group I saw Leormon and Elecmon, and Ogremon and Frigimon along with the digimon from the Temple, and three Gotsumon and a bunch of Gekomon, Shogunkekomon and Otamamon... there were literally so many—and I couldn't stop staring.

"Monzaemon?" Momoe asked slowly.

"I told you that we'd see each other again Miss Inoue." Monzaemon said with a smile. "How is your baby?"

"G-good." Momoe said nodding.

"I've gone around looking for those who would be willing to help the Digidestined." Meiyomon said, "and this is who I've found.

"Each one of us was saved at one time or another by you all." Leormon said.

"We owe you all of our lives." Elecmon laughed.

"And now we're going to save_ you_." Ogremon said.

"G-great." I nodded, "But you've come to the wrong place."

"What do you mean?" Meiyomon asked.

"I mean that the others are gone without me." I told them. "I'm the only digidestined here."

Tatum elbowed me sharply and cleared her throat, "Me too."

"Three... actually." Monzaemon corrected us as he pointed to Momoe. "Momoe is my partner."

"I am?" She asked.

Monzaemon nodded and held out his hand to reveal a digivice which began to glow as it floated through the air toward Momoe who caught it while holding her daughter.

"Great," Natsuni said sarcastically, "Now it's just me."

Goblimon stepped forward and took her hand causing her to turn and look at him slowly as a ball of light appeared in front of her.

"You're not alone." He told her. "I'll protect you for as long as you'll allow it."

Natsuni laughed and hugged Goblimon again, throwing the eggs in the air only for Tatum to catch them, forgetting about her digivice which fell to the ground. She jumped and reached down to pick it up excitedly before we all turned back to look at Meiyomon.

"Seems to me like there are quite a few digidestined here." He smiled.

"But the ones you're looking for—the heroes—they're gone." I told him.

"The bearers of the crests?" A small voice asked. I looked to the ground to see a series of small black digimon. They were each fuzzy and smiling, and emblazoned on each of their foreheads was a crest. It was the one who bore the crest of courage that had spoken.

"Y-Yuukimon?" I asked, remembering him in his mega form. The great orange dragon digimon.

"That's me!" Yuukimon grinned, "We're back!"

I was nervous for a moment, but then I took in the tone of his voice and the smile on all of their faces. Without the burden of the crests and the Digimon Sovereign they weren't so bad... in fact they were pretty cute.

"We're really sorry for everything we did," Yuujoumon said sadly. He had once been a massive wolf digimon using Yamato's crest, but was now just like the others.

"We really didn't mean any harm." Chisikimon groaned. He bore the crest of knowledge, but being so small I didn't think it would be possible for him to have too much knowledge in that little body of his.

"We were just doing what we were told." Shinsetsumon said kindly.

"But even so, it wasn't right." Shinkoumon said, bearing the crest of faith on her forehead.

"And I'm really, _really_ sorry for hurting your friend." Jundomon said, bearing the same crest as Mimi, the friend she spoke of.

"Aren't they the cutest?" Meiyomon asked with a grin as I began counting them.

"There are so many," I pointed out.

"Oh," Meiyomon said, "Well yes, you didn't think all the crests of the digital world would come right to you and your friends did you? Of course there are more."

"Then who has them?" I asked. Meiyomon shrugged his shoulders and turned to his siblings.

Finally the digimon with the crest of strength on his forehead pushed his way through the crowd. Tsuyo-samon. "I heard... what happened to your digimon Michael." He said, looking up at me sadly, "And all I have to say is... that I'm sorry, and that I'm going to help you out."

"H-how?" I stuttered.

"Michael..." Tatum said quickly, drawing my attention. "Michael look at your egg!"

I stared as the shell cracked around the center. I couldn't stop myself from smiling as the top half of the egg slowly rose as the digimon inside—my digimon—lifted itself. Suddenly it flew from the egg, the top half falling off of hid head revealing his electric yellow body and red eyes. He landed in my arms and even though he was strangely sticky—I didn't care. He was mine again...

"Zurumon." Tatum and Elecmon said together.

"Do you believe _now_ that you can be a hero?" Tatum asked me, I looked down to Zurumon as she continued. "You're very strong—you're smart, and talented and funny—and you have everything it takes to be a hero... you just have to try."

"She's right you know." Natsuni said, "Trust me, I know a lot about heroes."

I smiled up at Tatum and then to Natsuni before I turned to Meiyomon and nodded, "I need your help then," I told him with a grin.

_**Willis:**_

My mother let out a loud boisterous laugh as she rocked back and forth in the passenger seat after Mr Michael Washington had told her a joke. A rather amusing one apparently. I rolled my eyes and looked out the window as my mother laughed, but she stopped suddenly and cleared her throat.

"Willis," She said, trying to comfort me. She had obviously seen me roll my eyes and was misinterpreting it. "It's okay. Those little rodent monsters weren't really your friends. They would have tricked you in the end—they would have caused you to feel pain in the end."

"Firstly, Terriermon is a dog." I told her, rolling my eyes once more, "Second, you're wrong! They wouldn't have done that. And besides—if they were going to, like you say, they would have done it like twelve years ago."

"Those things have been in my house for that long?" She asked.

I rolled my eyes. "You're being stupid." I told her flatly. "You don't understand."

"You keep saying that." She said, turning around to face me. "But you don't explain what it is that I don't understand."

"I've tried you just won't listen." I snapped.

"Then I'll listen to you." She said through gritted teeth. "Explain away."

"Okay," I said smiling, "When I was younger I wished for friends—I didn't have any. I needed something... anything to keep me from going insane. I needed someone to talk to, and someone I could trust and hang out with and someone who would care about me. And then that happened. An egg literally came out of your old computer and it hatched into my two best friends. I've known them their whole life—they mean everything to me. They'd never hurt me—well once Gummymon tried to bite me because there was a bee on me—but he was trying to protect me!"

"Is that all?" Mom asked, her eyebrows raised.

"No it's not all." I snapped, "There are endless facts and stories I could tell you about them and how much they mean to me, but you don't care. You won't care. You just don't understand."

"There you go again, telling me I don't understand." She said, rolling her own eyes this time, turning back and facing forward. "Well, the fact of the matter is, as long as you're living under my roof, then you'll not be permitted to see them."

"Well lucky me." I said matter-of-factly. "It's my house. My money. I'll just sell it, and buy my own house."

"W-where would I live then?" She gasped.

"Actually, better yet," I said, "Just you move out. I'll stay there with my friends and you can get your life together again. Letting you live off of me is not helping you at all."

"You talk to me like I'm a child." She said, her bottom lip quivering.

"Well you're acting like one." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, Willis." She said as Mr Washington pulled the car over into a parking lot. "Even if it is your house, I'm still your mother—you're still my child and you will do as I say. No matter what."

"Mom—" I tried.

"No."

"But—"

"We're here!" Mr Washington interjected into our argument with a smile. "The Safe House!"

I looked out the window, biting my bottom lip in anger, staring at the large building in front of us. But it didn't look like I had pictured it. The building was surrounded by digimon. Big ones, small ones, round ones, tall ones—it looked like a Dr Suess book—but evil. They were all clawing at the building and either trying to break the windows or doors down, or trying to climb to the top.

"Safe?" I asked nervously as I threw the door open.

"This is why I don't want you to have those creatures!" Mom growled at me. "They're bad. This is your fault—your fault Willis—you and those other kids. You did this didn't you? I know it! I just do! FIX THIS!"

I stared at her for a moment, unsure how to react to my mother blaming me for what seemed to her to be the apocalypse. Did that mean she didn't have any faith in me then? She didn't love me?

Well, no matter what the case may be, it was time for me to get in there and save the humans and show my mother that I wasn't the helpless child she seemed to think I was. And I would prove to her that I wasn't trying to destroy the world. And if she still didn't believe me... then I wasn't sure what I'd do. My mother was my only family I had... I had never even met my father...

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and set off at a run, pushing past Mr Washington on my way toward the building where I had to leap over a couple of angry digimon that I recognized as a Gotsumon and a Pumpkinmon. I pushed on the door, but it was blocked. At least whoever was inside would be safe. None of the digimon out here seemed to be too powerful. If this was Fanglongmon's army he hadn't gathered the most elite warriors. Likely because he'd been saving all his efforts into gathering the Dark Masters who, to be fair, put up _quite_ a fight.

I looked to my left and saw a Dokugumon. It was a champion level digimon, and a rather mean one at that. I ran toward it as it shot its web-like substance up toward the top of the building. I dived through the air, tackling the monster and ripping it away from its string which had attached itself to the building. I grabbed the string, and without thinking began to climb. I carried the string with me as I did so in case any of the other digimon were to follow me.

I wasn't sure what I was doing at the top, but the digimon wanted up there clearly, and that meant that there was _something_ up there. Whether it was a way in, or anything else—if they wanted it, so did I.

My hands were starting to burn as I climbed the building using the sticky thread in front of me. I thought for a moment that it might break, but it seemed strong enough... below me I could hear screaming from digimon—and I was pretty sure one of them was chanting. The higher I got the stronger and louder the wind got, drowning out the sound of the digimon below.

Finally I pulled myself to the top, falling onto the roof and landing with a thump on the concrete building.

"Ow." I said to myself receiving a few scrambled screams. I looked up quickly to see two familiar women with baked goods in their hands.

"Willis?" Mrs Yagami said nervously, "Is that you?"

"No, it's someone who looks ironically just like me." I said sarcastically as Mrs Izumi pulled me to my feet. "Thanks..."

"You're welcome!" She smiled, "I'm happy to be of some use."

I smiled at her almost sarcastically. I felt bad, but I was in a bad mood thanks to my mother. "So, no offense," I told them, "But having a picnic right here isn't a good idea."

"This isn't a picnic." Mrs Yagami said with a wicked grin. "Watch this." She tossed the muffin off the edge of the building. I watched it fall, spinning through the air slowly. Were they... feeding them? That was answered for me when the muffin landed in a group of digimon and set off a loud explosion.

I turned back to the two of them quickly, practically laughing.

"That's amazing!" I smiled at them. "Why haven't you thrown more? The rest of the digimon down there are all lined up—you could get them easily!"

"We're saving them all." Mrs Yagami said, pointing off into the distance. "For him."

I turned to look and felt all happiness and hope run from my body. I sighed in agony as I stared at the creature walking slowly toward us.

"D...Dragomon." I said shaking my head. "We need to get the rest of the digimon to leave—or die—just do something with them. We need them gone so we can get the others out of this building. We need to evacuate."

"What?" Mrs Izumi gasped, "Why? We'll just destroy Dragomon—we've got a lot of fire power here."

I shook my head, "You don't think a couple of muffins are going to stop Dragomon do you? They might stop all of these smaller digimon. But they aren't the real threat here."

"So you think we should get all the digimon then?" Mrs Yagami asked.

I nodded. "I think it's the best idea. Then get down into the building and warn the others to leave." They both nodded, hurrying toward the boxes of muffins.

I watched as they pulled armfuls of muffins out of the box and dropped them in a line down the side of the building.

"Careful!" I warned them. "Not too close! You'll blow out the base of the structure and kill us all!"

"R-right," Mrs Izumi said nervously, "Sorry!" And they continued, doing as I had instructed. I watched the digimon explode below. I knew it was mean—depressing almost... but they were a threat. They were all on Fanglongmon's side—likely being controlled by his mind. This way, when they were reborn they'd be out of his control whether we managed to destroy him or not. I saw two small digimon that, if I wasn't mistaken, were Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon again, run off at the sight of all the explosions, scurrying into the bushes.

Soon there were only clouds of dust and smoke at the bottom of the building. I watched nervously as they faded, and then found myself smiling. I ran around the perimeter of the building and saw that any of the digimon that had survived the attack had fled, scurrying off just like Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon had.

We were safe!

"Perfect!" I called to the others, turning to face them, "Now get down there and lead the others to safety.

"And you?" Mrs Izumi asked me.

"I'm going to deal with Dragomon." I told them.

"Alone?" Mrs Yagami asked, "I think not. Yoshie," She turned to Mrs Izumi, "You go lead the others. I'll help Willis."

"No!" Mrs Izumi and I said together.

"Yes." Mrs Yagami insisted.

"But you're the leader..." Yoshie said nervously.

"That doesn't mean you can't fill in for me for now." Mrs Yagami said, "It's important Yoshie... please."

It took a moment or two, but eventually Yoshie nodded quickly and nervously. She tried to turn away, but threw herself at Mrs Yagami first, hugging her tightly. She then hurried toward the stairs and threw the door open, turning back only to say "Good luck Yuuko..." And then she was gone, hurrying down the stairs.

"You need to go too." I told Mrs Yagami. "It's not safe."

"You kids seem to think that you need to do this alone." She said, "But your digimon aren't here right now Willis—and I don't have any. You're no better off than I am. So I'll help you. We've got a few muffins left... it might hold him off a little."

I looked to the box of muffins. There were only five left...

And then there was a screech.

Both of us looked to the sky quickly to see a large bird digimon in the sky. It was green and its wings were large and colourful.

"Parrot...mon." Mrs Yagami said slowly, "I've seen this... in a drawing Taichi made me... so... long ago."

I nodded slowly. It wasn't really the time for that and apparently Mrs Yagami knew that as well. She jumped toward the box of muffins and pulled one out, tossing it to me before pulling one out for herself. I caught the muffin and held it gently, afraid it might explode upon contact.

I looked up to Parrotmon who swooped down through the sky and began circling the building.

I ran to the side quickly and readied myself. As Parrotmon was coming around I dropped the muffin. He stopped flying just in front of it and shot upward. The muffin missed and fell toward the ground, exploding on impact.

"Your turn..." I said nervously to Mrs Yagami as she closed her eyes and threw the muffin and the bird who was now standing on the ledge of the building on the wall opposite us.

The muffin missed by a mile.

"Keep your eyes open next time?" I suggested. She nodded as she grabbed another one. I could tell she was scared so I decided to go before her.

I hurried forward, trying to get closer to him so it would be easier to hit him. I threw the muffin at him when I thought I was close enough, but he took off again, this time heading straight for Mrs Yagami who was standing, shocked, in fear.

Parrotmon let out a loud screeching call as he pushed Mrs Yagami out of the way with his large wing.

"Keep strong!" I shouted, "Like your son! Like Taichi!"

She turned to me and nodded. She pulled herself to her feet and spun in a circle before throwing the muffin toward Parrotmon who was doing a swoop in the sky to face her once more.

The muffin came in contact with Parrotmon's wing and exploded. Parrotmon fell toward the building and landed roughly. I watched with a smile as the creature screamed in pain, but my smile fell. I felt sorry for it... it was still a threat though—it was attacking us. We had to destroy it...

Mrs Yagami reached into the box and pulled out the final muffin and turned toward Parrotmon. "Do you want to throw it?" She asked me.

"You're the only one who has made contact." I told her. "You do it."

"Right..." She nodded. Readying herself to throw the muffin. I saw, as Parrotmon wings spread out to fly that his right wing was badly wounded. I bit my lip as he opened his mouth and screamed.

"SONIC DESTROYER!"

The sound waves that shot from its mouth caused me to throw my hands over my ears as it screamed. Mrs Yagami jumped out of the way as the ground beneath her exploded. I watched in literal horror as she slipped and fell, slamming hard into the building roof. But she was moving. She was fine.

But as she had jumped, she'd dropped the muffin and it was laying on the ground only inches away from the hole in the roof that Parrotmon had created. I ran toward it quickly, avoiding Parrotmon's loud screams, keeping my ears plugged. And then, as I scooped up the muffin I screamed in pain as the bird screeched once more causing my ears to ring and feel like they were bleeding—and in fact it was so loud that I wouldn't put that past them... they'd bled before.

I turned to Parrotmon who screamed once more.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, throwing the muffin as hard as I could toward him. The muffin landed inside his screaming beak and then exploded instantly.

I dived for cover as the digimon exploded. I kept my hands over my head for a while, unsure what the outcome had been, but soon there was a set of hands pulling me up. "You did it Willis!" Mrs Yagami smiled, wrapping her arms around me and hugging me.

"Good...?" I said nervously, checking the area where Parrotmon had been. Instead of the large colourful bird there were clouds of smoke. "But what about Dragomon?" I hurried toward the edge of the building and looking to where Dragomon had been. But he was gone. There was nothing out there—no digimon in sight.

I looked around the sides of the building, but Dragomon seemed to have totally disappeared...

"There's Yoshie!" Mrs Yagami smiled, pointing down to the ground to an army of humans running for cover into the trees. "She's doing a good job."

"Yeah... she is." I smiled.

Mrs Yagami turned to me, "So if Dragomon is gone, what—" She froze, staring up to the sky, "W-Willis..." She pointed behind me nervously.

I turned quickly and groaned. There was another flying digimon—we didn't have any more muffins! We couldn't win this battle...

"We have to get inside!" I hissed, "Go!"

Mrs Yagami turned to run but I stayed back, ready to distract the digimon as it flew straight toward me. I jumped back as it landed and then smiled. I didn't recognize the digimon, but I certainly knew who was on board.

"Willis!" Hikari cried out, jumping off of the digimon and running toward me, wrapping her arms around me tightly and kissing me briefly. "You're okay!"

"Well yeah," I told her smiling, "Always the tone of surprise."

"Hikari?" We looked over and saw Mrs Yagami running back toward us.

"Mom!" Hikari cried out, running toward her mother and jumping into her arms, hugging her tightly. I turned to the digimon, seeing it revert to Gatomon. I stared at it for a moment, not sure if I recognized that form of her digivolution as two friendly digimon leapt into my arms. I looked down to see Terriermon and Lopmon hugging me.

"We didn't want you to miss all the fun!" Terriermon laughed.

"Well I'm glad!" I said with a grin.

"Where is your mom?" Lopmon asked.

I pointed down to the ground, toward the rusted green car where my mother and Mr Washington stood together.

"Where is Dragomon?" Hikari asked, pulling away from her mother. "He was coming here—where is he? Is everyone safe?"

"Dragomon disappeared randomly." I told her, "I'm not... really sure to be honest."

"He can't just vanish." Gatomon said, leaping into Hikari's arms. "He's a giant dragon digimon."

"Then look for him." Hikari said. "Digivolve."

"Right!" Gatomon shouted, "**Gatomon digivolve to... Angewoman!**" Gatomon morphed quickly into the tall angelic figure and stood next to Hikari.

"Me too!" Terriermon and Lopmon said together.

"**Lopmon digivolve to... Wendigomon!**" "**Wendigomon digivolve to... Antylamon"**

"**Terriermon digivolve to... Gargomon!**" "**Gargomon digivolve to... Rapidmon!" **The two of them grew in size and shifted to their champion forms and then even further into their ultimate forms to stand next to Angewoman.

"Go find Dragomon." I ordered them.

They didn't move. Each of the digimon stood ready to battle, and at first I didn't know why, but slowly I realized why. The rushing wind faded suddenly—just the sound, the roaring died, but I could still feel the cool breeze, in fact it seemed to intensify—not in power but the air seemed to drain of all warmth as the darkness from the night sky poured down around us. There was no sound, except for the intensified sounds of our breathing. Even the ringing in my ears that Parrotmon had caused ceased to exist.

"Peekaboo..." There was a deep voice at that moment, filling the silence around us. And then the ground below broke open and crumbled around, the concrete from the pavement soaring through the air and crashing against the ground and breaking into multiple pieces. But it all made no sound.

The clouds above us began circling ominously above us letting the light from the moon pour directly down to the hole in the ground where Dragomon was rising.

I watched as the blue sea-dragon rose from the ground until his eyes were level with us at the top of the Not-so-safe-house.

"Dragomon!" Hikari said courageously, her voice strong. I looked to her to see her glaring at Dragomon.

"Little Hikari." Dragomon said almost happily, looking toward Hikari. I slowly moved across the building toward her, and took her hand as her mother nervously stepped in front of her.

"Stay away from my daughter!" Mrs Yagami squeaked, trying to defend her daughter.

"Mom—stay back." Hikari warned.

"This time we _do_ have digimon. We can handle it this time." I told her.

"Handle me?" Dragomon asked. "As in fight me?" He let out a loud, hollow laugh that echoed through my head like it was an empty chasm.

"We _will_ fight you!" Hikari insisted, "Every time I've had to face you I've been alone—without my partner." She looked to Angewomon. "But this time, I won't let you win. You can't get to me. Not while I have a beacon of light to help me take you down."

Dragomon looked to Angewomon with a spark in his eyes and lifted his large arm.

"Hikari," Angewomon warned, "stay behind me."

Dragomon swung his fist down hard—but not at Angewomon, instead his fist was hurdling toward the rusted green car in the parking lot.

"MOM!" I screamed as Anytlamon and Rapidmon shot through the air to protect her.

I tried to watch what was happening, but my attention was taken away from my mother as Angewomon grabbed Hikari, Mrs Yagami and I and shot through the air to avoid Dragomon's other fist.

Angewomon headed straight for the ground, but before she could land, Dragomon's fist had hit her and she landed roughly on the ground, dropping the three of us and sending us rolling across the concrete.

"Hikari!" I called, jumping to my feet. It wasn't that I was worried that she wasn't safe—she was a tough girl, she could handle herself against a little cut or a bruise, but against Dragomon—that was a different story.

My legs hurt, but it was nothing to the pain shooting through my broken ribs at that moment. My head had crashed against the pavement, but I didn't care—I needed to save Hikari.

Dragomon was throwing his hand down toward us as I grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, and then out of the way.

I looked quickly to my mother and saw her staring in awe at my digimon—but she was safe. So was Michael's dad... I was happy. I didn't want Michael to lose him too... we couldn't have any more deaths... Betamon... Takeru's mother... Gennai.

I squeaked though as my mother and Michael's father vanished in a beam of pink light and shot off into the trees.

"What was that?" Mrs Yagami asked slowly. I turned to look at her in time to see her ripped from the ground by a similar light.

"Meiyomon!" Hikari managed to say as Angewoman Antylamon and Rapidmon were captured in a light.

"You're leaving so soon?" Dragomon asked, slamming his fist down to the ground.

"For now." Hikari nodded, "But I'll be back... and I'll get you." She winked at him, "Sound familiar?"

I heard Dragomon roar loudly into the night sky as I was surrounded by a pink light.

_**Rei:**_

I could see all of the downsides to having the worlds combined. Really, I could. But it was so liberating for me to have them this way. There was a part of me that really didn't want them to separate again.

I wouldn't be able to move freely once they were separated.

And I really, _really,_ enjoyed walking. And skipping and running and jumping and just standing. I loved it all. And I missed it so much in my day to day life. It was stupid of me, to get hit by that car. I didn't look both ways. You learn that when you're a child. But I didn't look and because of it, I wasn't able to walk. The doctors claimed it was a miracle I came out alive after the force of the impact, but I didn't care. I wasn't happy in that chair. I could be, with the right people around, like Neo or Taichi or Yamato, but if I was with my mom I was absolutely miserable. She didn't care about me, or that's how it seemed. She didn't see me as a real person anymore. I was a mewling child, in need of pity and overprotection.

But whatever force combined these worlds, I had to thank them. Even if just for a day, they gave me the use of my legs back, and I would be forever grateful for that chance.

Even if I was spending my entire day walking around after a bunch of adults that were only slightly less confused as I was, on a mission to destroy some digimon called Wisemon that was totally giving orders to the smaller digimon. My guess is that he was like a general in an army or something, and by taking him out we'd either anger his boss, or we'd free the digimon under his control. I wasn't sure which it would be, but I was kind of hoping—more like _praying_—for the latter to be true.

"A strong digimon is near," the giant flame man said. His partner, a blue haired folklore student, nodded and turned to his rather eccentric girlfriend and his old professor, who I gathered was Mrs Takenouchi's husband. The large centaur nodded as well.

"We shall take a tour in that direction," he said, pointing to the right.

"And you don't need me," Bakemon tried again. "So you could just let me go."

"Give me that!" Mrs Takenouchi shrieked when her husband almost gave in to the digimon's guilt-tripping. "Go with your own team that way, and I'll take my team the exact opposite direction."

Mr Takenouchi led his student and his student's girlfriend down the path the centaur suggested, bringing the two digimon with them. Hiroaki decided to drag the Inoue siblings off, creating his own search party. I figured he enjoyed their company more than ours at the moment. The Inoues' endless chatter made it so he didn't have to participate. He could contemplate the fate of his ex-wife/current girlfriend while they walked, and the two young adults would be none the wiser. Wizardmon followed dejectedly, obviously not as enthusiastic about the Inoue kids as Hiroaki was.

"Why would you want to go this way?" Bakemon asked Mrs Takenouchi as she dragged him down the street. I assumed that made Mrs Ichijouji and I her team, along with her new digimon partner. "There's nothing there."

"Great," I muttered to Mrs Ichijouji. "That totally means that's where it is."

"I do hope it isn't," she said. "That little flower bud does not look strong enough to deal with anything."

"I just don't want to die," I told her. "I want to go dancing instead."

"Maybe we can all go dancing when this is over, would that be fun?" she asked.

"Maybe," I told her, suddenly feeling sullen. I'd never get to dance again. I wished I could. I would love to see the look on Taichi's face if I was standing or dancing when he next saw me. Maybe I'd feel comfortable enough to go on a few dates, go to a club and meet a whole bunch of guys. But I wouldn't get the chance, and I didn't like the reminder.

"Lead on then," Mrs Takenouchi demanded of the ghost digimon. "You obviously know where we're going."

"We're already here," he said smugly.

"Release Bakemon," came an ancient sounding voice. Mrs Takenouchi let go of the rope without even thinking.

"Thank you, oh thank you master," Bakemon cried, before floating away as fast as he could. I would miss him. He'd become such a vital part to our mission that I couldn't help but grow fond of the digimon.

"You're Wisemon then?" Mrs Takenouchi asked, sounding much more confident then she looked.

"My name precedes me," the digimon said happily. He was wearing a torn, hooded cloak. The torn pieces at the back gave off the appearance of wings, and he was wearing a set of robes as well. I couldn't see his face, it was under the hood, and he was holding glowing orbs above each hand probably with the use of magic. The strangest part about him though, was that he was hovering over a giant book.

"We should…go…" I whispered.

"Go?" he said quirking his head. "I think not. It's time I had some fun, don't you think?"

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Jou is with Taichi, Yamato, Mimi, Sora and Koushiro, heading to help Hikari and Willis with Dragomon, not knowing he's already gone. Iori has been separated from Ken, Daisuke and Takeru. What mischief will he and the three girls discover? And how will Kae, Rei, Toshiko and Budmon escape Wisemon? Kae has the answers next time.


	47. Army Attack!

**Y/N:** The closer we get to the end, the harder it is for me to write the chapters. -_- It must be because I don't want it to end…but at the same time, I do. It's been such a long process, and I'd like to be able to declare that I've made it to the end of another long, _long_ story. I hope you enjoy Kae and Iori's parts, and leave a review please?

**U/N:** Sorry, this being late is partially my fault. Michael's was harder to write than anticipated. Anyway, i hope you like it. We're only one chapter away from the final battle now... which is excting because this particular story was ridiculously hard to do. Anyway, yeah... review?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 47: Army Attack**

_**Jou:**_

"This is kind of like old times." Gomamon said from the floor next to me, "Except we don't have Takeru..."

"And that Sora and Yamato won't speak to each other." I said in passing.

"Well there's that." Gomamon said slowly, "And that Taichi still hasn't gotten his goggles back."

"Mhm..." I nodded, "And Koushiro and Mimi are playing some stupid dating game that no one else seems to understand."

"Right, right," Gomamon smiled, "And you have a baby."

I couldn't help but smile at that. I did have a baby. That was a true story. I never thought I'd be able to say that to someone. 'Oh, hi, I'm Jou, and this is my daughter,'. And even if I did get to say it I didn't think I would be the first to have a child out of our group... but whatever I had thought would be the case—wasn't. I had a baby... she was mine. Well, also Momoe's.

I knew my dad was going to be upset about her though. He'd only had boys for children, and for siblings, and his dad only had boys in the family, and I was pretty sure our family tree had never once spouted a female that wasn't married into the family.

But that was okay... I loved my daughter—even if my dad was going to hate every fibre of her being... and hate me even more than he already did... and when I told him that I had a child without being married he'd hate me even more... and he'd probably hate Momoe too.

Not that that really mattered... Momoe wasn't really going to be a part of my family anymore according to her... but that didn't change the fact that I loved her, and wanted her to be there forever. I thought about the note in my pocket... the one I knew off by heart at this point...

Jou,

I'm so sorry... I'm leaving. I mean, I'm sure you already noticed that by the fact that I'm gone while you're reading this—but I have to do it. I have to see the world, and if you won't let me do so, then I'm going to have to do it without your permission. And I really love you, but if this means goodbye... if this means that we have to breakup then I understand. I'm doing something that if you did, I would have tracked you down and killed you for... going without me—but I could see you weren't going to budge, and I wanted to go... but if, when I get back, you aren't seeing anyone... and you want me back... then perhaps we could start over... but until then... goodbye Jou.

Of course I wasn't seeing anyone else... of course I wanted her back... but I wasn't sure if I logically should. She'd left me with such ease—just writing a note and leaving... a note with no tear drops on it I might add. Just... it didn't seem right—but I did love her...

"Jou," I glanced into the rear view mirror and spotted Taichi who was playing with a baseball bat.

"Where did you get that?" I asked him.

"Oh it's Michael's," Taichi said, "He left it on the bus." He then cleared his throat, "Where are we going?"

"To the safe house." I told him simply, "That's where Dragomon has been heading, so I figured it would be best."

"Well where is the safe house?" Mimi asked slowly, "How do you know where you're going?"

I looked back to the road and kind of let the realization kick in. "I... don't." I slowed the bus and looked around for some sort of sign.

"Let's go up." Yamato suggested. "If we go to a higher point then we'll be able to see where Dragomon is, and then we'll just follow him." I nodded, flicking my eyes to the mirror to see Yamato holding a sword.

"Now where the hell did you get a sword?" I asked sharply.

"It's Gennai's sword." Gabumon smiled, "Someone must have taken it to the bus."

"It's actually not Gennai's sword." Tentomon informed them, "It's Piedmon's. Gennai was just carrying it around."

Yamato's face fell as he looked to the sword, "It's not the one that hit Iori is it?"

"No," Koushiro supplied, "That one was destroyed when Gennai tossed it aside."

"And it had a club on the end." Tentomon buzzed, "This one has a heart."

"So where is this hill you mentioned earlier?" Gomamon asked Yamato.

Biyomon jumped to her feet in the seat next to Sora and looked to the others with a grin, "How about I do it instead?" She jumped up to the back of the seat looking triumphant, "I could do it? I could just fly until I saw him!"

"No." Sora said flatly causing Biyomon to visibly deflate and fall back into her seat. "He'll spot you too easily." Sora was right, we needed to keep hidden, unseen and unheard. This was probably the most dangerous situation we'd ever thrown ourselves into. And there were only six of us. Admittedly, we could all go into mega, but at the same time, would that be enough to defeat Dragomon? Apparently he was not as strong as Fanglongmon, but that didn't mean he was less of a threat. He could still be more powerful than us.

"So let's drive." Agumon said simply.

"Agumon's right," Taichi said, "We can't just sit around and wait for a hill to come to us. We need to find Hikari—so get driving."

"Taichi," Sora shot, "Stay calm. I'm pretty sure you're still in competition to see who gets to be the leader. And a leader stays calm and collected. So far it seems that Daisuke's gotten my vote."

"Are you joking?" Taichi shot, "At least I didn't turn evil."

"Daisuke joined the dark side, yes." Sora said with a smile and a sigh, "But for love. He followed his heart to protect the one he loved, and kept her out of harm's way, and then broke free of the dark hold all on his own, rescued Gennai, saved our lives by destroying Piedmon, showed his crest to extreme levels becoming a mega, saving Miyako and Iori in the process and now he's out there following Fanglongmon in hopes to destroy him. He's got quite a lot of points stacked against you."

"I—but..." Taichi stuttered.

"I'll vote for you," Yamato smiled, patting Taichi on the back. That seemed to make Taichi feel better.

I was only half listening after that because I was driving around, searching for some hill. I hadn't been to this part of Japan in a while and didn't recognize the landscape very well, but then I remembered the perfect hill! The tallest one I'd ever seen. It was where Mimi and I had gone as children to play in the snow. It was also where her house was—and it was the last place I'd seen her before she moved to New York...

I turned the wheel sharply and turned a tight corner, and hit the gas as hard as I could, swerving around the trees and broken cars that littered the streets.

"Watch it Jou!" Yamato growled, "I'm holding a really sharp sword here! You almost made me cut off my foot!"

Taichi, Agumon and Gabumon started laughing, but Sora rolled her eyes, and since both Mimi and Koushiro were required to be on her side of the break up, they too, rolled their eyes. I grinned and let off the gas a little.

"I recognize this place." Palmon said slowly, "Where is it?"

"This is the street I used to live on." Mimi said before realizing where I was going, "Good idea Jou!"

I smiled at her and rounded the bend in the road and spotted the hill. It was perfect.

Soon I was at the top of the hill and turning the gas off. I opened the door to the bus and hopped to my feet. "Come on Gomamon. Let's go look around."

"Roger!" Gomamon smiled, following me off the bus. I heard some of the others coming behind me, but I didn't look back to see who it was. I was already scanning the city for Dragomon. It didn't take too long to spot him though. He was standing there, tall and proud in the ocean—and as far as I could tell, the safe house was not in the ocean.

"Why is he there?" I looked back to see that everyone had followed me off of the bus. "Where's the safe house?"

"Who knows?" Mimi said slowly. "But clearly Dragomon isn't a threat to it anymore."

"Maybe he never was." Sora said.

"Or maybe he's already done destroying it all." Taichi said flatly.

"Taichi," Agumon said comfortingly, "Maybe Dragomon doesn't know where the house is either? Maybe we're not the only ones who can't find it!"

"You're right..." Taichi said nodding slowly, "Thanks Agumon."

I noticed that Agumon was always there to calm Taichi down and put him back in place—without his digimon, Taichi would be an awful leader... but because the two of them were a team... they'd definitely get my vote.

"So what now?" Palmon asked, "Now that we have no reason to go fight Dragomon without the others?"

"Now we contact Hikari." Taichi said.

"We don't have any way of doing that." Sora said, taking Taichi's hand comfortingly, "None of us have been taking our D-Terminal's anywhere, and Hikari doesn't have a phone."

"Does Willis?" I asked suddenly.

"No one has his number." Yamato pointed out.

"I do!" Mimi cheered, pulling out her phone. At first it didn't make sense to me why she'd have his number, but I remembered her living with him in America, so it really wasn't that odd. She pulled out her phone and dialled his number. "He's not answering." Mimi sighed, slamming her phone shut and returning it to her pocket angrily.

"Well what do we do then?" Biyomon asked, "Can we fight? I'm really looking forward to some action."

"No." Sora said determined. "We're not going to go looking for trouble.

"But trouble... will be looking... for you."

We all turned slowly to see one of Dragomon's shadows. Taichi ran forward and swung Michael's bat, but it went right through the creature as if it were a shadow... which it was.

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon roared, sending flames toward the creature, causing it to disperse into nothingness.

"That wasn't so bad." Palmon said relieved.

"No..." Another voice said, "but he wasn't alone."

"Spiral Twister!" Biyomon called out, hitting the new creature in the face, destroying him.

I looked to my feet where Gomamon was trying to keep safe. He wasn't much help in a battle against creatures that could only die by non-physical attacks...

"Mimi!" Sora squeaked, "Behind you!"

"Blue Blaster!" Gabumon shouted.

"Electro Shocker!" Tentomon buzzed. The two attacks shot behind Mimi and destroyed two more shadows.

"This could be simple enough if they keep coming in ones or two's..." Yamato said nervously.

"Only, that isn't going to happen." Koushiro said nervously, pointing down the hill. "Look."

We turned to look where he was pointing. I groaned. There was a giant army of shadows creeping up the hill. I turned to the other side of the hill, hoping to escape that way, only to see more shadows.

"We have to fight." Biyomon said happily. "Let's do this!" "**Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon!**"

"**Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon**!"

"**Palmon digivolve to... Togemon**!"

"**Agumon digivolve to... Greymon!**"

"**Gabumon digivolve to... Garurumon**!"

"**Gomamon digivolve to... Ikkakumon**!"

With a series of glowing rookies the hill lit up bright enough to convince me that it wasn't night for a moment or two. And when the light faded and the six champions stood in a circle around us, letting the darkness pour around us I felt someone watching us.

I turned to look at Dragomon whose head was tilted toward us, staring directly at us.

"He's watching." Mimi said nervously, grabbing my arm "Jou, he's watching us."

"I know." I said quietly, trying to keep brave, "Ignore him."

"He's g-going to come!" Mimi stuttered, "I can't do this right now!"

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"So much." She said, "I can't handle all of this fighting."

"You never could." I told her with a smile, "But if you want to run off and start a side quest and come back with an army—now would be a good time."

She punched me in the arm and I smiled at her as she giggled.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon roared, spitting fire down toward the shadows.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon shrieked as she floated into the sky.

"Electro Shocker!" Kabuterimon buzzed.

All three attacks wiped out multiple shadows at once, all of them were made from fire and light.

"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon barked, sending blue flames down the hill, wiping out shadows down my side of the hill.

"Harpoon torpedo!"

"Needle Spray!"

Both attacks upset the shadows, knocking them out of the way, but neither hurt them to the point of destruction.

Mimi and I looked to each other nervously as she gripped my arm tighter.

I couldn't see what was happening after a while, having Garurumon, Ikkakumon and Togemon in the way, so I pulled Mimi with me, heading toward the bus in the center of the digimon, and jumped toward the ladder, climbing to the top. Soon I was standing at the top of the bus with Mimi by my side, staring out at the shadows around us.

"How are we supposed to beat them all?" Mimi asked me.

Before I had the chance to answer Koushiro had, climbing up after us. "We'll just keep fighting. Even if Togemon and Ikkakumon can't harm them, the others can, and we'll keep fighting until we win."

"Right..." Mimi said slowly, hurrying toward him and helping him up.

"There are just so many though." Yamato said, throwing his sword arm to the top and finishing pulling himself up to the top and then turning to pull Taichi up as well.

"But we've yet to lose anything." Taichi grinned.

"Because we're awesome!" Yamato grinned, giving Taichi a high five.

"Where is Sora?" Mimi asked, laughing at them.

We all turned to the ground where Sora was on the ground jumping up and down and cheering Birdamon on.

"Sora!" Mimi called, "Sora come here!"

"Evil Wing!" At the sound of the two words my heart clenched and my stomach flipped.

"Oh crap..." Taichi gasped.

"SORA!" Yamato screamed, "Sora! Get out of there!"

Suddenly Birdramon was screaming and falling from the sky, shifting back to Biyomon.

"Biyomon?" Sora said slowly, "BIYOMON!" Sora lunged forward, shooting toward the shadows as they swallowed Biyomon, covering her in darkness.

"Sora!" Yamato shouted, hurrying toward the ladder. Taichi grabbed his arm and shook his head.

"No, Yamato. It's not safe." Taichi said slowly.

"Exactly." Yamato said flatly, leaping from the side of the bus and landing smoothly before running into the swarm of shadows, bearing Piedmon's sword.

Taichi groaned and clenched his fists, "They're going to die..."

"No they're not." I said sharply as Garurumon turned and ran into battle to help Yamato and Sora, leaving Togemon and Ikkakumon alone on their side of the hill.

There was a soft click and a swish from the other side of the bus. I turned quickly to see Ladydevimon land smoothly and smile at us. "Greetings Digidestined,"

"Get lost." Mimi growled, "I'm not in the mood."

"Oh but I am." Ladydevimon said, stretching her arm out toward Mimi.

I grabbed her and pulled her back as Koushiro jumped in her place. Ladydevimon grabbed Koushiro's arm tightly and pulled him toward her.

"Electro Shocker!" Kabuterimon bellowed, sending a ball of intense electricity toward Ladydevimon who ducked to avoid it, letting go of Koushiro in the process.

"It's time to digivolve!" Koushiro said sharply.

"You too Togemon!" Mimi yelled out.

"**Kabuterimon digivolve to... Megakabuterimon**!"

"**Togemon digivolve to... Lillymon**!"

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon shouted sending a blast toward Ladydevimon who caught the attack and threw it into the air violently.

"Horn Buster!" Megakabuterimon growled sending a bolt of powerful lightning toward Ladydevimon who jumped into the sky to avoid it, and then shot through the air toward Megakabuterimon, hitting him in the center of his chest and then flying the opposite direction.

"Catch me if you can!" She called out.

"She's trying to split us up." I said sharply. "Don't follow."

"We have to." Mimi said slowly, "She's dangerous Jou, we can't just let her do what she wants."

"You're right." I said slowly.

"Lilymon!" Mimi called out, squeezing my hand tightly, "Follow her!"

"You too Megakabuterimon!" Koushiro nodded.

"We'll come too!" It was Biyomon, floating out of the battle as Garurumon followed her with Sora and Yamato on his back. Sora was holding tightly onto Yamato who was swinging his sword wildly slicing through the shadows. For some reason it was working... these shadows were really starting to confuse me.

"Right!" Sora said nervously, "Digivolve!"

"**Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon**!"

Birdramon stretched her wings out and steadied herself in the air for Sora to jump on. "Thanks..." She said awkwardly to Yamato before Birdramon flew toward the bus for Mimi and Koushiro to climb aboard.

"Be careful." Mimi and I said as one. We smiled at each other before Birdramon left, flying after Lillymon, Megakabuterimon and Ladydevimon.

"Jou..."

I turned to see Ikkakumon being swarmed by the shadows. "Help him!" I growled to Yamato.

Garurumon and Yamato shot into battle to save him as Taichi climbed down the ladder. "Where are you going?"

"To help." Taichi said flatly.

"With what?" I shot to him, "The bat doesn't work on the shadows."

"But it will work on them." He said, pointing with his bat to the east and then to the west where armies of digimon were pouring in over the houses. He then dropped down the rest of the way and ran toward them screaming some sort of battle cry.

"Why me...?" I asked myself with a groan before hurrying toward the ladder. I knew I'd have to help... but how? As I landed on the ground I looked around for a weapon before stopping, and pulling out the keys to the bus, and then slowly looking back up.

_**Iori:**_

I didn't appreciate being dragged around like a rag doll. So I was a little tired, it didn't give Noriko and Miyako the right to pull me down the street, making me abandon my friends. Ken was Daemon's target. I had to help keep him safe. I realized that Ken and I didn't have the greatest track record. I actually hated him for the longest time, and only managed to forgive him somewhat recently, but he and I had gotten closer. Miyako was my mother's preferred babysitter—she didn't say that exactly, but she insisted that Miyako be present for any trip I wanted to go on—so I'd spent a lot of time with Ken over the last three years or so. I'd gone on quite a few of their dates even, bringing Natsuni along so I wouldn't distract them.

I couldn't let him get hurt.

It would hurt Miyako and it would hurt me. Not to mention what it would do to _him_.

"He'll be fine," Noriko said to Miyako.

"I don't know who you're talking about," she protested weakly.

"All of them," Noriko told her. "They'll be fine. Nothing too bad ever happens to you guys. You're like superheroes."

"Wow," I said. "Good to know what qualifies as 'too bad'."

"Oh, no," she said quickly. "You getting hurt was one of the most traumatic events in my entire life. I don't know I would've done if you didn't get better. I can't picture my life without you. You're the brightest part of my day."

"Aww," Miyako squeaked. "That's adorable. Too bad you're such a crazy person and so insulting, you two might've been good together otherwise."

"I'm rather partial to Natsuni," Hawkmon supplied.

"Who asked you, you turkey," Noriko muttered.

"Well I never," Hawkmon said affronted.

"Is this the time for this?" Kurayami asked, coming up from behind me.

"Actually," I murmured. "Yeah. This is the only time for it. Could you guys go ahead? I have to talk to Noriko about something…"

"Sure," Miyako said quickly. "C'mon Kurayami, let's see if we can figure out where this dragon is headed."

"He's huge and flies slow," Kurayami said. "He's still heading the same direction he was before."

But she let Miyako drag her off, with Hawkmon following dutifully after her. Armadillomon needed my approval before he would go along with it.

"So, what do you need?" Noriko asked once they were gone. She was fluttering her eyes, and I couldn't see how it was supposed to be attractive. And she was like…_petting_ my arm too.

"Oh, well," I said stumbling. I hadn't thought about how to voice it. "Uh, well, I promised a friend who's dead now that I'd ask you something."

"Is it important?" she asked, trying to hide her excited smile. God this was awkward.

"I would just like to know if at some point, should we live, you would maybe want to, I don't know, go out with me or something?"

I'd closed my eyes, trying to envision myself in the place of one of those guys in the movies that Natsuni made me watch. Those romantic comedies that would always turn out the way everyone wanted…I could only hope it worked for me.

She didn't give me an answer. She kind of attacked me instead. I didn't even see it happen. I'd had my eyes closed, hoping against everything I knew that she might not say yes, when suddenly, her arms were around me, and she was jumping up and down.

"I knew it!" she shouted in my ear, shrieking in excitement. "I knew you liked me. Mom always said that you were avoiding me only because you didn't know how to talk to me. I can come off a little strong, she says. But I knew you could see past all of it."

"It's _one_ date," I reminded her. "One. Only one. Because I promised Betamon I'd ask you."

"You don't have to hide behind past promises Iori," she said winking at me, fluffing her short brown hair with her left hand. I supposed she thought it looked rather attractive. I didn't think it changed anything. She was already a pretty girl. I knew she was. It was one of the things that made me like her in the first place, before breaking me. She'd changed drastically after her slew of boyfriends, and I didn't care much for her new personality, but she was still pretty. There was at least _one_ thing I could recognize in her. "I should have known you were going to ask me. You were giving me flirty eyes on the bus."

"No," I told her. "I wasn't."

I was trying to work up enough resolve to make this up with Betamon.

"If you didn't like me," she said. "You wouldn't have asked me out. I know you. You've broken up with Natsuni, the awkwardness from your kiss made it apparent, and only now that you're unattached can you bring yourself to act on your hidden feelings."

"I never dated Natsuni," I corrected. It was the easiest to try and convince her of. I wasn't getting anywhere ranting about.

"And you've never _liked_ her?"

"No," I said, rolling my eyes.

"You sure know how to make a girl feel special," she said brightly cupping my face in her hands. I only had time to widen my eyes in horror before her lips had connected with mine.

Why did people feel the need to kiss me? That was the second kiss I'd had that day, not counting Miyako and Hikari kissing my face as I was dying. Kissing ruined things. It made everything awkward between Natsuni and I. She couldn't even look me in the eye anymore. I was all in favour of ignoring it, but she was bound to want to talk about it, coming up with a mutual agreement to, you know, ignore it.

And then there was Noriko,—who I was adamant about avoiding at all costs — moving her lips against my own, using her hands to bring my face closer to her. I could hear Miyako gasping in the distance. Apparently when I asked for privacy, they'd decided to spy on me.

There really was something to kissing that I'd missed in my rants about my necessary ignorance of anything related to love. It wasn't a disgusting ritual in which you exchange saliva. It wasn't the greatest feeling on earth either though. Maybe it was because it was with Noriko and not someone that I _really_ cared about. But I kind of…maybe sort of _liked_ it a little bit. Just a little tiny bit. It was different than Natsuni's surprise kiss too. I didn't feel like something really soft had slammed against my face and then disappeared before I could really assess the situation.

I didn't know what to think.

I knew I shouldn't be thinking about Natsuni's kiss while kissing Noriko though, even if it _was_ nicer and Natsuni had softer lips. It wasn't honourable. I knew I'd have to devote myself to Noriko for the one date. Whether she managed to rope me into more with her sheer stubbornness was yet to be determined, but I shouldn't be thinking of other girls until I was free of her.

And maybe I could find something I liked about her because of this, you never know…

It was at that point that I realized I was kissing her too. And then I pulled away real fast. I'd kissed her. As in, I'd done it of my own free will, all because I'd gone too deep into thought to control myself.

"Right," I said stiffly, looking anywhere but at her face.

"So we're dating then," she said. I could hear the smile in her voice. "If we live."

"We'll see," I told her.

"I couldn't die without having kissed you," she told me as if it were some big secret. I was suddenly reminded of her stalker-ish tendencies. What had I gotten myself into?

I nodded, jerking my head awkwardly, before turning and walking away. Armadillomon was quick to join my side.

"Is this the something stupid you were talking about? Because Betamon had mentioned you liking her…" he said confused.

"Remind me to never ask a stalker out again," I told him in a daze.

"O-okay," he stuttered unsure.

"Way to make Daisuke eat his shoe," Miyako said clapping me on the back. "I knew you talked about her too much to really hate her, although with the way she's been acting since we rescued her…"

"I can't stand her," I told her.

"Uh huh," she said with a sly wink. "I kiss Ken the way you just kissed her…or I used to…"

"But you," I said in horror, unable to finish the thought. I'd seen the two of them kiss, I mean, _really_ kiss. It was, quite frankly, what made me feel kissing must be a horribly disgusting activity. I did not kiss Noriko like that. I barely even participated. And I no longer wanted this to be the topic of discussion.

"Where's Fanglongmon?" I asked instead.

"He's still on the same course," Kurayami said. "Thought I do suggest we keep moving."

"Yes, let's do that," I said quickly. "Kurayami, Miyako, let's go."

I grabbed each one by the hand and started stalking off, leaving the digimon to scramble behind us.

"Don't go telling them everything," Noriko said in what I guessed was her flirty voice. Three years of trying to ignore these things and her in particular made it hard for me to guess.

"There isn't much to tell," I promised Armadillomon who was looking at me with wide eyes.

"AHHHH!"

I stopped in mid-step. "That was Jou."

"And Taichi," Miyako added.

"Is that not Ishida as well?" Kurayami asked.

"They're fighting. Not far from here," I assumed.

"Fanglongmon's going nowhere fast," Miyako surmised.

"We should go help them," Kurayami suggested.

"You read my mind," I said, squeezing her hand. She looked terrified. She didn't have a digimon and she was still willing to run into battle to help my friends. I didn't know why people were behaving so harshly to her. I knew what she'd done had been wrong, but at the same time, she hadn't been in control of herself. And if _she_ could support us, why couldn't Noriko?

"We were told to keep on Fanglongmon's trail," Noriko said bossily. I suppose she was angry that I was holding someone else's hand. Two different someone's. But she needed to learn when to keep her mouth shut, because I wasn't on the date with her just yet. Technically, Betamon only wanted me to _ask_ her out, not take her out. She was on thin ice, and if she did anything else, she might be in danger of being stood up. You know, if I could bring myself to do it…

"If we don't save them," I told her testily. "Then following him will amount to nothing. Don't you understand? Our friends are our first priority, everything else comes second. We need to stay together for Gennai's sake. We can't lose anybody. And I do mean anybody. I don't want to hear anymore talk about you disapproving of Ken or Yamato or Michael or Kurayami. They are my first priority. Anything else, dating included, comes second to their lives. Understand me?"

"Yes," she said moodily. She didn't even take chastisement normally. Did she think I was trying to flirt with her now? Probably, if she was following her mother's advice anyway. Clearly her mother had never seen the two of us interacting.

"Digivolve, Hawkmon," Miyako said urgently. She was right. We didn't have time to beat sense into Noriko's head. She was going to believe what she wanted. Nothing I said would change her mind. With the looks Impmon was giving her, I doubted anything he said would help either.

"**Hawkmon digivolve to… Aquilamon!**"

We were quick to climb onto his back, holding on as best we could. He had decided to fly low and fast causing Kurayami's long black hair to whip around in the wind and as I was directly behind her into my face. Noriko had her arms wrapped securely around my waste, and I could practically feel her smile on my back. I didn't think it was supposed to feel nearly as awkward as it did. I really ought to figure out why that was, but only once I'd survived of course.

"Is that them?" I heard Miyako scream over the rushing of the cool wind.

"Yes," Kurayami shouted just as loudly. "I think so."

I peered around Kurayami, as best I could, and saw the familiar camp bus. It was unfortunately surrounded by what looked like hundreds of digimon and maybe…were those shadows? The screams made much more sense now. I'd thought it was odd that the guys were screaming battle calls.

"Take us down," Miyako shouted.

Aquilamon followed the instructions, dropping us off in one fell swoop, before going to join the battle quickly. Armadillomon followed his lead, digivolving right to Piximon before doing so though, so he'd stand a better chance against the shadows if he happened to come across them.

Noriko grabbed my hand and watched as Impmon ran into battle with some of the weaker digimon, trying desperately to prove his worth. He was doing a fair job of it too. I liked him. Noriko on the other hand was acting like a leech. I couldn't get her to let go. She was calling out to Impmon, saying what a great job he was doing, and would not let go of me. I watched helplessly as Kurayami, Jou, Yamato, Taichi and even Miyako were out there fighting for their lives as well.

"Let go of me," I snapped finally. She looked at me with big eyes.

"But I'm scared," she said.

"Get on top of the bus or something then," I told her. "I have to fight too. It's not fair to make them fight to save me."

"I'm going to pass this off as stress," she warned me. "But you can't treat me like that again, not while you're my boyfriend."

I would've corrected her and said that no, I was not her boyfriend, and would not _be_ her boyfriend, but I didn't care enough to do so. I was busy. Couldn't she see that? Kurayami was doing way more to prove herself than Noriko was. If I was actually attracted to her, and Daisuke hadn't declared dibs on her three years ago, I would've wished it was _her_ I was taking out. But with the way she was taking out those shadows and digimon, I figured it might be a good thing I wasn't.

I was going with Noriko.

I had to learn to deal with that, psyche myself up for the actual event, so that I had the motivation to pull through this upcoming battle with Fanglongmon—if we even made it _to_ that battle. And hell, if I could find it in myself to forgive Kurayami, I could forgive Noriko. Her faults didn't cause nearly as much damage as Kurayami's had.

My digivice glowed a dark yellow colour, and I looked up happily to see that pink ball that was my digimon turn into some giant arctic creature that looked to have come out of an old Norse myth.

I heard the tail end of the digivolution and was pleased to know that my mega's name was Vikemon. He was awesome. Much more exciting than Piximon was, and he looked tough you know, not like a pink bowling ball.

"Yes!" I shouted. I had done it. I'd reached the same level as everyone else. I didn't feel like such a failure anymore. I understood my crest, and it was now a part of me.

I didn't have as much time as I'd have liked to admire my new partner though, as more digimon and shadows were approaching me. And I'd be lying if I hadn't hoped that Vikemon would have been able to win this battle for us in just a few minutes. But he didn't. He was faring better than the others, being only champions, but he wasn't pulling out a win for us either.

I kept beating the digimon, but I didn't know if I'd make it through. Miyako kept getting hit, but she was bouncing back every time. A shadow attacked her, making her scream out, and I started running at her. I had to keep her safe too, because she was my favourite babysitter growing up, and she was one of my best friends. And I knew that the last time I started running without thinking didn't turn out so well, but I didn't care. I was going to save her.

Turns out though, that I didn't have to, because pink pillars of lights showed up, bringing reinforcements…

_**Michael**_:

My head was throbbing. We'd been spinning and shooting around so much that I literally had no idea how to hold on anymore. But I managed. I was gripping onto tufts of Airdramon's fur with Tatum holding me around the waste, sitting behind me, and a very cute little blob sitting in her lap—my partner...

The pink lights surrounding us vanished and I stopped grinning. I had to admit, I'd thought that it would be a simple, _swoosh_ and then a victory. But there were shadows and digimon everywhere.

"Michael?" I looked down to see Miyako grinning up at me.

I winked to her before hearing Taichi squeak and run off toward his sister. I'd asked Meiyomon to find her, and bring her back. I looked back to my team. Meiyomon was in the front with his siblings, his army right behind him. To his left was Hikari and Willis with their digimon, and to his right was a very confused Takeru, Daisuke and Ken. I wanted to keep us together. He'd said that he found Koushiro, Mimi and Sora, but told me that they were busy. And in the back of the group, hiding from the danger, stood alone Goblimon protecting a woman and her baby, and his very own partner.

"Meiyomon." It was Iori again, running directly toward his brother—but there was no time for that. A shadow emerged from the ground and grabbed on to his leg, tripping him.

"Not my brother you don't." Meiyomon said, grabbing the head of the shadow, pulling it away from Iori and throwing it toward the ground.

The shadows and digimon all froze to stare at Meiyomon as he shot a powerful energy blast toward it, destroying the shadow. There was a few seconds of silence that I decided to take to my advantage.

"Ready?" I whispered to Tatum.

"Whenever you are." She said with a nod.

"ATTACK!" I yelled out.

And instantly the army around us practically exploded into battle, running directly toward the opposing digimon and shadows. Airdramon too though, swooping in and biting the head off of a particularly vicious looking shadow that was attacking Miyako.

I reached out and took her hand, swinging her around and dragging her onto Airdramon's back. "What the hell is going on here?" I asked her.

"No clue—just got here. But you guys definitely saved the day!" Miyako said with a sigh of relief.

It was definitely something I'd been waiting to hear... but it didn't feel right. Something was missing... perhaps because I really hadn't done anything, or perhaps because no one here really seemed to like me... at all.

I heard a scream then and turned to see who it had come from. I groaned when I saw that it was Momoe. "Airdramon—go to her!" Tatum practically growled. "GO!"

Airdramon turned quickly through the air and shot off through the sky back over top of the battle and toward Momoe. Miyako was holding her breath behind us nervously as Airdramon shot a blast down and destroyed the group of shadows that were attacking her.

"We have to help her." Miyako said flatly. "Her and Natsuni!"

I nodded and Airdramon obeyed, landed smoothly to allow Goblimon to assist Momoe and Natsuni onto his back. Natsuni and Miyako reached down and pulled Goblimon up after, before setting off again.

"It's not safe here." Momoe said nervously, "I knew I shouldn't have come!" the baby in her arms was crying loudly.

"Then we'll make it safe!" I said determined.

"Meiyomon!" I called out loudly. Within a few seconds the jester digimon was floating next to us as we soared over the battle.

"You called?" He asked me.

I nodded, "Yeah, we need you to get the army to push the enemy down the hill."

"You got it!" Meiyomon said, allowing himself to fall back toward the battle. Airdramon circled around the bus that the others had come in before lowering himself down enough for Momoe, Natsuni, and Goblimon to get off and stand next to Noriko who was standing nervously.

"What now?" Tatum asked me.

"Well, right now we're going to help fight." I said with a grin. As soon as I said it Airdramon set off again, baring his teeth and preparing for a fight. I was watching overhead as Airdramon swooped through and fought, biting the digimon and shadows. But still, I didn't feel I was doing enough—I had brought an army with the help of Mieyomon—but still...

Before I knew what I was doing, I had slid sideways and jumped off of Airdramon, landing in the battle. The battle seemed to be in some sort of standstill, neither team was winning. The shadows kept dying, but would only regenerate moments later, and the digimon on either team were only growing weaker—none had fallen from the battle.

I had landed near Hikari and Willis who were standing back to back fighting the shadows and digimon with their own partners standing nearby. I soon spotted Taichi and Yamato, wielding my baseball bat and Piedmon's sword respectively. Jou was standing with Iori and the two of them were fighting the digimon off with sticks of sorts. Takeru and Ken were running through the battle wielding guns, and Daisuke was doing his best to protect Kurayami from the foes as each of their digimon did their very best to fight.

And then I heard a scream. I had chosen the wrong course of action. As I looked up I saw a cloaked shadow figure flying next to Airdramon, staring at Miyako with his large red eyes.

"Meiyomon!" I shouted, "Get me up there! NOW!" I hadn't even seen it coming, but with a swish of pink I had appeared in the air above them falling over top. I landed on the creatures back, with my arms around its neck and instantly we steered off course, heading straight toward the ground.

Just before we hit the ground he flew straight up, pulling out of the dive with expert timing and then we were spinning and soaring through the air. I was doing my best to get in a good punch as I used my other hand to hold on as tight as I could, clawing at the back of his neck.

He was growling as the redness of his eyes grew more intense, darker. And then with a single punch to the face he had dispersed. He was gone—not dead. He hadn't died like the others, but he was gone, and I was falling through the air.

I closed my eyes and with a soft thud had landed on something. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was sitting backwards on Airdramon facing Tatum and Miyako.

"Hey!" I smiled at them.

"That was pretty amazing," Tatum winked at me.

"T-thank you..." Miayko said nervously.

When I looked back to the battle I saw that Meiyomon had managed to spread the message to the rest of the digimon, in his army and the battle was successfully moving down the hill.

"We'd better land." Tatum ordered. Airdramon nodded and flew down to the ground once more.

I looked to Hikari who was still wearing her brother's goggles. "Hikari!" I called out, "Get the others to stay. This is our chance to regroup."

"You're right." Hikari nodded, before turning to the others. "Taichi! Angewomon! Everyone! Come back! Meet at the bus! This is our time now."

_**Kae:**_

Oh dear. That was all I could think. Even in the direst of situations, I couldn't bring myself to think unseemly thoughts. We were going to die. I didn't want to die though. I had to pull through this for my son. He needed me a bit longer yet. I could not keep myself though, from thinking of my other son. My first born, my little Osamu. He'd been without his mother since he was taken from me. I would try my hardest to pull through for my baby, but I knew that even if I could not, I would still find my peace with it.

It was not that I was scared of death. I wasn't. It was hard to pull through Osamu's death, and I'd lost my fear of it. I'd longed for it some nights when the pain was still fresh. But Ken kept me going. He was what I lived for. And I would try to live for him still.

"Run!" Rei shrieked, pushing herself as much as she could. Her legs—though working—were unfamiliar now for her, and she was having difficulties with the rough terrain. I was having troubles of my own. I hadn't had to run since Ken was a small boy that was hard to keep up with. I got all of my exercise now from walking through the supermarket.

"I'll protect you, Toshiko," Budmon declared from the woman's arms.

"No," Toshiko protested. "Not this time. He's too strong for you. Let me keep _you_ safe."

Budmon pouted. "It's my job!"

"You can get a job when you're sixteen," Toshiko snapped, sounding like an old argument between her and her daughter. I would know. Ken and I had that argument when he was thirteen. But somehow I didn't think it worked the same way with digimon.

"You're not going to escape me," Wisemon said from right behind me. I'd been running since Rei screamed. I'd covered a fair bit of distance. I _thought_ so anyway. I could not understand why he was so close to me.

"Keep going," Rei cried. If I could see her face I was sure it would be a mix of frustration, fear and tears. The poor girl had no preparations for this. Not like the rest of us. Though I couldn't help but envy her stamina. I was ready to give up. But I couldn't. We had to beat him for the children's sake. I just had to get Hiroaki's attention. He had the digimon with the plans. I was sure that between Wizardmon and that Meramon and the centaur digimon, we'd be able to beat him. He wasn't _that_ big of a bad guy.

Rei came to an abrupt halt when a book opened up out of the ground, allowing Wisemon to appear before us.

"Going so soon?" he asked.

"Yes please," I said politely.

"I don't think so," he said. "Now who would like to go first?"

"How about you?" Budmon shouted. "Poison Thorns!"

The purple thorns on his body were shot towards Wisemon. I was sure they were poisonous. But before they could hit, Wisemon's book closed, with him inside, then sank into the ground.

"I chose you," he said, from behind me again, grabbing my wrist. "How would you like to be trapped in time for an eternity?"

I couldn't help myself. I screamed as loud and long as I could. I don't tend to scream on principle, it is loud and it hurts people's ears. But I did it then. The thing is, I have a particularly loud scream, one that came in very useful that day.

Before Wisemon could do anything, a burst of fire hit his hand. I stopped screaming in terror and called out in surprise joy. Hiroaki and all of the others were here. We were going to defeat him…for the kids.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** Mimi, Sora and Koushiro are the only digidestined missing, and the three of them are going to tell us the story of just why they were late, and Hiroaki takes the lead in the finale of the Wisemon arc.


	48. The Eye of an Eagle

**Y/N:** Yeah, so I was not able to put words to the page this time around.  
I've only been waiting for this chapter since we started the whole  
thing, but I just could not get it out. Maybe its because I've thought  
it through so many different ways that it just wasn't fun this time? I  
don't know. But I think I pulled it through in the end. Or I hope so  
anyway. Leave a review maybe, to let me know how I did?

**U/N:** This was... fun? Not Sora's part though-Hiroaki's. I hated writing Sora here because i literally had nothing to go on-it was just... yeah just read it :P I hope you like it and review :D Also, don't expect the next chapter by Saturday (or sunday, cuz we seem to be doing everything a day late lately) it'll be up on Wednesday, or Thursday-it's preeeety big... and intense.

**Title:****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 48: The Eye of an Eagle**

_**Mimi:**_

Everything was getting more and more intense. We'd left one battlefield in pursuit of another one. This day was just _never_ going to end. I was so tired, and I had to force myself to keep moving. I cared so much about the fate of the world, but my body just was not on the page my brain was. That being said, flying with Birdramon was always a challenge, but fighting exhaustion the way that I was, it was nearly impossible. Birdramon's feathers weren't feathers. They were flitting flames that would melt my skin off if I touched them. Her feet were big, but not really big enough for two people. Sora was clinging to Birdramon's left foot, leaving Koushiro and I to fit on her right. It was cramped, but on the plus side, it prompted Koushiro to wrap one arm around my waist. It was the one plus in the current situation.

MegaKabuterimon and Lilymon were flying ahead of us, desperate to catch up to LadyDevimon.

"Flower Cannon!" Lilymon shouted, cupping her hands together and shooting a small burst of energy into the demon woman's wings, trying to stop her escape. But LadyDevimon ducked underneath the attack.

"Electro Shocker!" MegaKabuterimon tried. But she dodged his electric based attack just as easily, sending a smirk back our way.

"Oh," I said. "She makes me so mad."

"Don't let her get to you," Koushiro murmured in my ear. "She's trying to get into our minds. She wants us to make mistakes."

"She's doing a good job," I hissed back. He tightened his grip on my waist, and I fought back the fluttering in my stomach. Now was not a good time for my silly school-girl crush. Of course there was a chance that I would never get to dwell on my crush ever again. And it did feel really nice. I would enjoy revisiting this moment if and when we beat LadyDevimon and Fanglongmon. And Dragomon. He terrified me.

"So don't let her," Koushiro said his breath warm against my ear. His presence was enough to calm me from my Dragomon educed terror.

"Where is she going?" Sora asked loudly.

"You don't think we're falling into a trap, do you?" I asked Koushiro.

"There is a distinct possibility," he answered honestly. "She could be bringing us directly to Dragomon. I highly suspect she is not bringing us to Fanlgongmon, however, as he's over in the other direction. We can still see him from here."

I whimpered at the mention of Dragomon, and burrowed myself into his chest—while still using one arm to secure myself to Birdramon. He stiffened at the initial contact, but eventually relaxed into it. He was comfortable enough to duck his head down, resting his chin on the top of my head.

"That is adorable," Sora commented dryly. "And it's hilarious that you are so awestruck by her obvious reciprocation of affections, but we're in a battle, and though I am a major supporter of the two of you, I need your focus on the battle so that we don't all die."

It was probably one of the smartest things I'd heard anyone say today. And she got bonus points for slipping in that one little detail that told me that he liked me. It was enough, for now. If I lived, I would totally be pursuing that little avenue, but it was enough for me in the moment.

"Maybe if we attain a stronger attack force…" Koushiro muttered. "MegaKabuterimon, perhaps it's time for you to digivolve!"

"I'm on it," the large red beetle declared.

"**MegaKabuterimon digivolve to… HerculesKabuterimon!**"

LadyDevimon laughed a cold, chilling laugh. "You think that will defeat me? I am one of Fanglongmon's elite."

"Yet you're merely an ultimate," Koushiro pointed out. "The Dark Masters were more than that."

"They were fools," she sneered.

"Fools with higher power levels then you," Sora said with a laugh.

"If they were stronger than me, how is it that you cannot defeat me as you did them?"

"We will," I told her. "And then you'll be sorry you attacked us. I'd almost forgotten about you myself. You could have gotten away."

"I want to achieve Fanglongmon's great plan. He wants the digimon in their rightful place, as the rulers of all nine realms," she said.

"Nine?" Koushiro commented. "We've only got five keys."

"You thought you were special, didn't you, that the five keys chose you to wield them. You really are an arrogant bunch. There are more keys. You simply have the keys that Fanglongmon discarded. He did not need the key to the Digital World, he was already the dominating force there. The Dark Ocean was a gift from both Dragomon, and _you_ digidestined. And Earth…he had his own methods of traveling to this mewling planet you call home. He has improved it, has he not?"

"It's horrible," I cried. "He's ruined all that is natural and beautiful about the earth."

"_You_ destroyed all natural elements in your world. The great Fanglongmon has injected this world with the Digital World's nature to balance out the corruption you humans caused to our original world. You weren't worthy of our home, yet _we_ were the ones ejected from it, trapped into a different world," she told me. "Fanglongmon is the greatest being to live in any of the realms. You should be honoured he chose your home at all. He wishes to destroy the others simply because he has no use for them."

"We should be honoured?" Sora asked sarcastically. "He's _killing_ our planet, and terrorizing our people. How can you really think that he's doing _good_?"

"Because I have seen the truth," LadyDevimon said. "Have you?"

"Yes," Koushiro told her. "We've seen the truth. I know how the worlds work. I didn't realize that there were only nine though. Fanglongmon is not creating a better world. He's creating chaos. A world cannot be destroyed so easily. The worlds support one another, so long as they remain parallel to each other. Combining them, destroying them, it's not right. I've done the research. Has your master done his?"

"Do not dare to question his greatness!" she shrieked.

"Clearly, she's lost her marbles," Lilymon said. "We really ought to try and knock some sense back into her head."

"If she had any before," HerculesKabuterimon joked with a low, rumbling laugh.

"You going to keep trying to get away?" Lilymon asked. "Or are you going to fight us 'mon to 'mon?"

"You're asking for it," LadyDevimon yelled in a shrill voice. "You won't insult my master!"

"And here I thought we were insulting her," Lilymon said rolling her eyes.

"Evil Wing!" LadyDevimon cried, raising her wings and unleashing a series of dark creatures towards Lilymon. They were scary looking, and I just knew they'd dissect Lilymon's data. "Taste the power of the X-virus."

"No thank you," Lilymon said meekly.

"Mega Electro Shocker!" HerculesKabuterimon shouted, blasting an even bigger version of MegaKabuterimon's Electro Shocker, and thankfully was able to annihilate the entire collection of dark creatures of death.

"That wasn't very impressive," Sora commented.

"Sora," Koushiro groaned. She was provoking an unstable enemy. We couldn't predict her actions at all, and making her angrier would just make it more difficult on us.

"My turn," Lilymon decided. "Vicious Vine!"

Out of Lilymon's hand shot a vine, simple and green. It made its way to LadyDevimon, and tore through her shoulder, at which point it sprouted thorns.

"Oh, was that supposed to hurt?" LadyDevimon asked, casually reaching up and pulling the vine back through the front of her shoulder, not even wincing at the thorns.

"It was supposed to do more than _that_," Lilymon pouted.

"Take us down, Birdramon," Sora commanded. "I think it's time we joined the fight, what do you think?"

"I agree," Birdramon said rather menacingly. "Let's see how she handles three."

Birdramon dropped altitude rather suddenly—leaving me and Koushiro both to cling to her leg, meaning he had to let go of me in favour of his laptop…again—and set us down on a cliff, before flying back up to join the fight.

"Digivolve!" Sora cried.

"**Birdramon digivolve to… Garudamon!**"

The white light that accompanied digivolutions faded, leaving us with a giant of a bird, raring to fight. "Crimson Claw!" Garudamon flew at LadyDevimon, hands in fists and coated in burning flames. LadyDevimon flew clumsily around her fists, growing angrier and angrier with each attempted punch.

"Binta!" LadyDevimon shrilled, raising her clawed hand and slapping Garudamon hard across the face.

"Oh no she didn't," Sora said in both shock and anger.

LadyDevimon's big attack was a slap across the face. She was crazier than I thought if she figured that would work.

_**Koushiro:**_

I hated Sora so much at that moment. I was having a hard time concentrating, and it was literally life or death at that time. How could she possibly think that basically telling me that, yes, Mimi did in fact like me too would help us in our quest for victory? I was having enough troubles before, trying to get the idea of kissing her out of my mind. And then Sora had to go and tell me that. How was I supposed to concentrate of destroying LadyDevimon when she told me something I'd always kind of hoped for? I really liked Mimi. I could admit it to myself now, and to Sora when she begged for a 'heart-to-heart chat' while we were still on Earth, before entering the Digital Ocean world combination and before Earth was thrown into that mix. It seemed like months ago, but it was only a day…maybe two now. It was hard to tell how long it had been. I was so tired, too tired to care about that.

And then Mimi decided that clinging to me was the best way to stay alive while flying. How was I supposed to deal with _that_? I liked her. I wanted her to hug me and whatnot, but I was too tired to filter my actions or my thoughts. I could only hope I didn't slip up and kiss her in the middle of a battle, or actually _tell_ her how I felt. It was not the time for any of that.

But Sora had brought it up. I was now spending more time trying to decide just how I felt about Mimi, I knew I liked her, but I didn't know how much. And really, it wasn't as important as defeating Fanglongmon and his many subordinates.

I was glad that HerculesKabuterimon was able to keep his head in the situation.

"She just slapped Garudamon," Sora said. "What the heck? It's not a high school, petty girls fight. This is a battle."

"You slapped girls in high school?" I asked, desperate to get my mind off of Mimi. A feat that was nearly impossible because she chose that moment to take my hand. I instinctively closed my fingers around hers. It felt nice. It felt natural. It wasn't awkward or forced.

And my mind was back on her.

"Not usually," Sora said. "But I saw lots of girls slap their boyfriends."

"Not to interrupt," Mimi said. "But they're still fighting."

I looked into the air, and saw she was right. Of course she was right. She wasn't distracted like I was. She knew the importance of what we were doing and she was actually able to act on it. All I could do was squeeze her hand to show that I agreed with her. I was rewarded with a smile, and again had to force myself to pay attention. They needed me to come up with a plan. They _always_ needed me to have a plan. And I didn't even know what was going on. I took a deep breath, and held it in for a few seconds before exhaling. Okay. I could do this.

"Temptation!" Lilymon shouted, engulfing herself in a red aura. The aura expanded over to LadyDevimon, pulling at her…draining her energy.

"That energy is tainted," I muttered. "It might not be good for Lilymon to do that."

"But it's weakening LadyDevimon, look!" Sora shouted.

"Lilymon?" Mimi asked worriedly, as Lilymon's face contorted in pain. "Stop Lilymon. It's not good!"

"She is not strong enough to handle Fanglongmon's gift of power. How can you hope to contend if she can't even handle a portion of my power?" LadyDevimon said smugly.

"She does not need your tainted power to defeat you," Garudamon told her. "None of us do. We will defeat you with our forces of good. Love, knowledge, purity. They will be your downfall."

"If you can't injure me, what downfall will I ever need to face?" LadyDevimon said with a laugh, a _real_ laugh, amused not sadistic.

"I think it's time to say hello to Rosemon, Mimi," Lilymon shouted.

"O-okay," Mimi said nodding her head quickly. She took her hand out of mine to hold onto her digivice. I took that moment to step away from her, put in some distance. The further I was from her, the less I'd think about subjects that would lose us this battle. I also took the opportunity to start up my laptop. It was low on battery power, and it wasn't like I was going to find an outlet out here in the wilderness, but I might have some information on LadyDevimon that would be useful.

"**Lilymon digivolve to… Rosemon!**"

The beautiful digimon stood tall, and did not waver when she encountered LadyDevimon's glare.

"You still won't beat me," she said haughtily. "My power is rival to none. Save my master of course."

"But you don't have to be that strong," Sora commented.

"It is for my master to decide my strength, not you," LadyDevimon said with a sneer.

"But maybe we _could_," Sora murmured beside me. "Give me that computer, Koushiro."

"Not on your life," I said, pulling it away from her.

"Fine," she said. "Open that program. The one we discussed earlier."

"Why wasn't I invited to the programming party?" Mimi asked.

"It was a bonding moment," Sora said offhandedly. "We're like best friends now or something."

I got the feeling she wasn't as invested in our new friendship as I was. I'd actually acknowledged her as my best friend ages ago, after our varied 'moments' as she called them. Before our bonding though, I didn't have any really close human friends I could classify as such before. I simply had the digidestined and Tentomon, while she had plenty. Perhaps that was why.

Mimi huffed, and pouted prettily. She wasn't too pleased with Sora's and my relationship. Sadly that made me very happy.

"The digivolution program?" I clarified.

"The counter-digivolution program," she corrected.

"Right," I said sheepishly. "There're bound to be a few kinks. I haven't exactly had time to finish it. What do you need it for?"

"Give me that," she said with an exasperated smile. "I'm going to try and fix this, keep her busy guys."

"Can you even do that?" I asked.

"I'm about to find out," she said. "My dad told me something when I met up with him a little while ago. He said that everything has its weakness. Mine is chocolate. I'm guessing that since she's so obsessed by it, hers is her power. If we could take that away from her…"

"That we'll be able to beat her no problem?" Mimi asked sounding excited again.

"Yeah, both because we attacked her weakness, and she'll be so angry that her power is gone she won't be thinking straight, and because she'll be weaker in general," Sora said. "Good plan, right?"

"In theory," I said worriedly. The program wasn't ready for testing just yet, especially not a test of this calibre.

"That's good enough for me," she said with a smile. "Okay. So I'll just substitute LadyDevimon's data in where Tentomon's data was, and invert the whole thing so that it's a negative, and therefore taking away the power rather than adding it. That sound right?"

"That was my initial plan," I said nodding.

"So we'll win?" Mimi asked taking her eyes off of the battle in the air. "They aren't doing any damage, and they're stronger than her."

"It'll work," Sora declared. "I'm channelling my inner Koushiro here, and when is he ever wrong?"

"A few times," I said nervously, but neither of them seemed to hear me.

"Okay," she said happily. "Wish me luck."

"How about I pray?" Mimi joked, but I could hear the desperation in her voice. She wanted this to work so badly. I wanted this to work too. But I wasn't banking on it like they were. There was only a fifty percent chance it would do anything at all.

Sora pressed the enter key, and stared at LadyDevimon. Nothing was happening. She pressed the key again, and again and again. She was going to start slamming her fist into it when I intervened and stole my baby back from her. I couldn't let it get hurt just because Sora did something she had no experience with and was blaming it on my laptop.

"Why didn't it work?" Sora cried.

"Maybe it did?" Mimi suggested. "And since it's just her power we don't see it."

"No, it was a program to de-digivolve her," Sora complained.

"Something's happening!" Rosemon screamed, causing me to look away from the depressed girls. Rosemon, HerculesKabuterimon and Garudamon were watching LadyDevimon as her skin expanded and bubbled. She was cackling madly.

"You-you fools!" she shrieked.

"Take that LadyDevimon!" Sora shouted.

"Now _you_ know _your_ place," Mimi added with a smile. It was a really beautiful smile too…

"Focus," I told myself.

"But she's weaker now," Sora and Mimi said, obviously not realizing I wasn't speaking to them. "We can take her no problem," Sora added.

"Shouldn't she be turning into a Gatomon or something?" I asked. "Not that."

LadyDevimon's skin turned a putrid shade of gray. Her hands expanded into a three clawed mess with an eye dead centre. She screeched and curled into herself, her wings wrapping around her. She started glowing, and her wings—now red and rotting—opened to reveal a monster.

"Something went wrong," Mimi said softly.

"Something went _very_ wrong," I told her. I proceeded to scan the new digimon that was merely floating in the air. Its entire face was made up of a large, yellow eye, which was searching, assessing its surroundings. "Ghoulmon," I told Sora and Mimi when the scan finished.

"It's weaker though, right?" Sora pleaded.

"Not exactly," I said, reading through the results.

"I take it inverting the formula so that it reads negative did _not_ help our cause then," Sora surmised.

"Are you saying that this is even _more_ powerful than LadyDevimon?" Mimi shrieked.

"Garudamon, now might be a good time to digivolve," Sora mused.

"**Garudamon digivolve to… Phoenixmon!**"

"Okay, now use your special rain attack that purifies enemies," Sora instructed. That sounded like a brilliant solution for her previous mistake. But theories rarely make it into actuality when the Digital World is involved.

"Not so fast," Ghoulmon said in a raspy, cold voice. It flew directly at Phoenixmon, slashing at her wings. "Death Arrow!" Arrows flew from the eyes on its palms at Phoenixmon. "I ought to thank you. You have given me more power than even my master could."

"Phoenixmon!" Sora screamed, as she watched her digimon partner get beat on by her own creation. "Give me your computer."

"You couldn't possibly have come up with the reversal coding already," I told her, holding my precious computer away from the violent girl.

"No. But I've got another idea," she said, and she proceeded to rip my computer out of my hands. "Keep the ghoul distracted."

"Did you hear that HerculesKabuterimon? We're up," I shouted. He nodded, and proceeded to launch at the new foe.

"Giga Scissor Claw!"

His pincers didn't do much damage though. In fact, Ghoulmon was able to throw him off. Rosemon decided to jump into the fray, hoping to turn the tables in our favour.

"Forbidden Temptation!"

A spiral of flower petals—meant to reduce Ghoulmon into nothing more than bits of data—was ignored by the powerful monster.

"We need something stronger," Mimi cried.

"Omnimon is the strongest we've got," I pointed out. "And he's not here. We can do this. We just need to think."

"That's usually _your_ job," she said quietly. "I usually avoid the fighting."

"It'll be okay," I told her, hoping I wasn't lying.

"That's right," Sora said. "Because Phoenixmon will be getting more power. If Koushiro can program his digimon to do it, so can I."

"But there's nothing for you to aim for. Phoenixmon is already a mega level digimon," I told her.

"We'll find out, won't we?" she said, pressing the enter key once again. I looked up to Phoenixmon, almost relieved to find that she wasn't a monster like Ghoulmon was. Nothing was happening. And as much as I knew it was probably a good thing, the part of me that was tired and wanted to finally be able to rest was disappointed that this battle wasn't going to end any time soon.

"Darn it," Sora cried, thrusting her computer into my arms. "I was so sure it was going to work."

"Maybe it's just delayed, like it was with LadyDevimon," Mimi suggested.

"I'm not going to wait to find out," Ghoulmon told us. Something was wrong with its voice though. It was much too loud. Almost as if it were right behind us…

"I realized something just moments ago," it said. "Everything has a weakness, isn't that right child of love? And _you_ are your digimon's weaknesses. I take you out and I don't need to waste any energy on your pitiful partners."

"Uh oh," Sora said. And it was all any of us was able to get out before Ghoulmon flew at us. Sora tackled me to the ground, and Mimi jumped the other way. She'd separated herself from the group. Not a good tactic.

And Sora made me land on my shoulder. I'd been tired enough to overlook the pain, but landing on it, and then skidding over a rocky cliff-top, that was enough to bring it back in full force.

I gritted my teeth, but didn't manage to stifle my scream fully. Ghoulmon wasn't focussed on us at the moment, so I picked up my laptop, desperate to find a solution, until I heard a scream.

"Ahh!" Mimi shrieked as Ghoulmon targeted her this time. It was walking, menacingly, towards her, pushing her to the edge of the cliff. She'd have no escape. I had to do something. I _had_ to.

"Mimi!" I shouted, running at Ghoulmon's back. Ghoulmon turned around to face me, but its wing hit Mimi, forcing her off of her feet, and rolling off the edge. My heart stopped. She wasn't dead. I wouldn't let her be.

"Thorn Whipping!" Rosemon called out, wrapping Ghoulmon's neck in an electric charged vine. She struggled to keep a grip on the digimon. "It's too powerful. I won't be able to hold on for long. Help Mimi. Now!"

I didn't need to be told twice. I ran towards the point where she fell, tripping over a rock on the way. I fell to my knees, my laptop skidding in front of me. It stopped just before the edge—thank God—but I couldn't focus on it now, I needed to get to Mimi. Rosemon was still Rosemon, so there was hope for her yet.

"Mimi," I shouted.

"Help," she gasped. And I saw her. Well, I saw her hands. She was clutching a rock that was sticking out of the cliff. There wasn't much to hold on to, and I was so thankful that she had even that much. She'd saved herself. I reached out my hand to her, ready to take her wrists and pull her to safety, but one of her hands slipped. "Ahh!"

I dropped down to my stomach, and caught her other wrist just before it slipped as well.

"Don't let go," she pleaded.

"I don't plan on it," I told her seriously.

"Gah! I'm losing it!" Rosemon shouted.

I felt HerculesKabuterimon land on the ground behind me. It caused the whole cliff to shake. I was sure Mimi was going to fall. I would go with her. We were holding onto each other too tightly for it to be any other way. And did it ever hurt to be dangling a fully grown woman with one mangled shoulder and slightly less than average strength.

Something else was shaken by his landing. I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye. My baby, my laptop. It was moving closer and closer to the edge. It was balancing precariously when the shaking stopped. I was more worried about Mimi at the moment, but I was thankful that I didn't lose it…

But I spoke too soon. The balance was overthrown, and it toppled over the edge. I watched in horror as it fell.

"No!"

I looked down at Mimi in confusion. She swung herself over, trying to reach it as it passed her, but she didn't get it. "I'm sorry," she said with tears in her eyes. "I didn't get it."

"That's fine," I said, desperate to keep my hold on her. And with her movement, I was slipping a little. "Keep still."

"I just wanted to catch it for you," she said.

"It's fine," I repeated. "I don't need it."

"B-but you love your laptop!" she cried, looking at me with a sense of helplessness.

"I love _you_ more," I told promised, and tried to pull her up again. "Now hold still!"

_**Sora:**_

I watched Koushiro and Mimi anxiously as he gripped her tightly, but my attention was drawn to something else. I reached to my backpack strap and pulled my digivice in front of my face. It was beeping like crazy, so I glanced quickly toward Phoenixmon—maybe I'd done something right after all! Then again, perhaps I'd done something terribly wrong...

And then my digivice lit up so bright that I had to close my eyes, but I could have sworn it wasn't red... I pointed it away from me and toward Phoenixmon and then opened my eyes again to witness my digivice glowing a deep violet colour. I was confused as I glanced toward Koushiro whose digivice was glowing also, his was red.

"What's happening?" I asked loudly, but he was too preoccupied with Mimi to answer me.

"**Phoenixmon!**" Phoenixmon shrieked, pulling herself to her feet with a strange new sense of power.

"**Herculeskabuterimon!**" Herculeskabuterimon buzzed in his low voice from the air.

"**Digivolve to... Eaglemon!**" They said as one. I watched, my jaw dropped as the two digimon swirled around one another in the air, each glowing the colour of the opposite partners crest until, in a flash of red and purple a single digimon floated in the air. Eaglemon... the digimon was large, and birdlike, it's feathers were golden like Herculeskabuterimon's shell, and a smaller version of the great bug's horn was on Eaglemon's helmet.

Our digimon had fused together! Just as Omnimon had been created from Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon! Koushiro and I had somehow figured out the fusion digivolution...

Suddenly the realization hit me. I had shown knowledge working with the programs—figuring out her weakness, while Koushiro showed love, saving Mimi... and by showing each other's traits we created... Eaglemon.

"Death Arrow!" Ghoulmon shrieked, sending a blast toward Rosemon, who was unable to move out of the way as her vines were still wrapped tightly around the monster. The blast shot straight through Rosemon who let out a loud scream before glowing and falling toward the ground, reverting to Palmon before landing roughly near the edge of the cliff.

"Eaglemon!" I shouted nervously, unsure if I was actually allowed to direct Koushiro's digimon—but it was mine too so... "Attack!"

"Kaiser Phoenix!" Eaglemon shouted in a voice that was half Phoenixmon and half Herculeskabuterimon after a quick nod to me. He—she... Eaglemon tightened its wings until it became a battering ram in the air and shot its hard, golden armour covered body straight toward Ghoulmon so fast that I lost track of him in the air.

I may not have seen the attack but I certainly knew when it had hit. The ground shook violently as I spun on the spot to watch the fight, my digivice still glowing the opposite colour and vibrating. The ground had literally exploded where Ghoulmon had been standing and a pile of dust, smoke and rocks was accumulating around the area. I heard screaming as the edge of the cliff began to crumble and fall, and my heart began to panic, but only for a moment.

Soon Eaglemon had burst through the smoke with Koushiro and Mimi hanging tightly to his back, and Palmon hanging on to its feet with her Poison Ivy. Eaglemon set the three of them down and turned toward Ghoulmon.

"So you gained more power," Ghoulmon said as he stepped from the smoke. "But that doesn't mean you'll win. You don't have my Master on your side—you don't have the Virus he injected me with."

"Every virus runs its course." Koushiro told him as Mimi clutched his hand, "But they all eventually fade from existence."

Ghoulmon was not pleased with this news and ran quickly toward Eaglemon, leaping and latching itself onto the back of its neck. Eaglemon spread its wings and set off into the sky.

"So what the _heck_ is that thing?" Palmon asked, exhausted, clinging to Mimi's legs for support.

"It's Phoenixmon and Herculeskabuterimon..." Mimi said slowly, "Right?"

Koushiro nodded, looking down to his digivice which was glowing red. "Sora and I had each bonded with each other and each other's digimon... perhaps we'd created a strong enough set of friendships that we were able to digivolve so closely."

Mimi pursed her lips but said nothing. "It had to do with the crests." I said, before Mimi could get too upset. I showed knowledge and you showed love... I just can't believe it took you this long."

"I'm not the one who waited twenty years to show signs of knowledge." Koushiro said, his eyebrows raised. I laughed but Mimi still looked rather displeased that we were so close... I knew I'd have to talk to her about that. I wasn't interested in Koushiro—she had no reason to worry—I wasn't interested in anyone at the time being to be totally honest. Not after having a three year long relationship blow up in my face—there was no way I could rebound so fast and just _have_ feelings for anyone...

I looked up to Eaglemon who was swooping through the sky, trying desperately to shake Ghoulmon off of his back. Finally he, I decided I'd call him a "he" because he looked more like a boy than a girl, and I felt mean calling him an "it", settled on diving toward the ground. Ghoulmon, panicked, jumped off at the last second giving Eaglemon just enough time to pull out of the dive and land smoothly, his back to Eaglemon.

"Explosion Eye!" Ghoulmon squeaked, his center eye turning red for a moment before shooting a red blast toward Eaglemon.

Koushiro nervously grabbed my shoulder as he bit his bottom lip—but his worrying was for nothing. Eaglemon clamped his wings shut and the attack dissipated before Eaglemon turned sharply to Ghoulmon.

"We really need to finish this." Koushiro said flatly. "We don't have time for this."

"You're right." I said nodding, "We need to spend our time and energy on a more worthy opponent."

Ghoulmon turned to the three of us with anger, and once again set off toward us, trying to pull through with his previous plan.

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon shouted, sending her attack toward Ghoulmon to wrap around his feet and trip him.

"Mystic Break!" Eaglemon said loudly, spreading his wings wide across the sky before opening his beak and sending a white beam straight toward Ghoulmon.

The attack hit him dead on, he was unable to dodge as he was still on the ground, and then he began to turn into data.

"You may have defeated me..." Ghoulmon said loudly, "But Fanglongmon will avenge me! You will never defeat him! And when he wins... he will bring me back! And then _I_ will truly be victorious!"

"Shove a sock in it!" Mimi growled, just as the beast faded totally from existence.

I wasted no time continuing the process.

"We need to get back to the others." I said aloud. It was strange, I felt so much more confident an powerful than I had even when wearing the goggles... they were like a curse—a terrible awful spell that only few could tolerate. And so far, the only ones I'd seen do so, were Taichi, Daisuke, and Hikari.

"You're right." Koushiro said, leading the way for Mimi as the two of them held hands tightly.

Eaglemon bent down quickly, spreading his wings out to allow us to climb aboard. I let Mimi and Koushiro go first before following them with Palmon right next to me.

"Like my new look?" Eaglemon asked in Herculeskabuterimon's voice.

"You bet!" Koushiro laughed.

"I'm proud of you Sora." Eaglemon said in Phoenixmon's voice, and then, back in Herculeskabuterimon's voice, "And you too Koushiro." And then, finally, combining the voices "Let's go."

I was finally able to take in my excitement over Eaglemon since the battle was over. The long golden wings were soaring flapping, carrying us through the air like some sort of crazy fighting mechanical bird/bug. Eaglemon was both pretty and awesome—able to keep his own in a battle with his layer of golden feathers...

I was really excited to see everyone else's reaction to him before I realized that hardly anyone would really care too much. It wasn't the time to be thinking about excitement or rubbing my new digimon in everyone else's faces.

Eaglemon was faster than Birdramon, and we were soon descending upon the hill where the others had been fighting. I glanced down and saw that the shadows and digimon were being held at bay by some familiar faces. I smiled but then noticed Greymon standing with some of the other digimon at the top of the hill still so I instructed Eaglemon to land with them

"Nova Blast!" Greymon shouted, sending a fireball our way. Eaglemon swerved out of the way sharply.

"Hey!" Palmon yelled down, "Stop it you jerk!"

"Palmon?" Greymon asked as Eaglemon swopped down and landed, bowing down once more so we could get off of his back.

"What the _heck_ is that thing?" Taichi asked in shock.

"Eaglemon." Koushiro said as if it were obvious.

"Phoenixmon and Herculeskabuterimon fused together to kick some Ladydevimon butt." I smiled at them as we all hurried off of Eaglemon. I glanced toward Yamato who was smiling and bit my bottom lip to force myself not to smile back. Taichi was standing with him and the others... we were finally all together again. Willis and Hikari were standing with Takeru, Iori, Ken, Daisuke, and Miyako, while Jou was standing with Michael, Momoe, Noriko, and Natsuni. Kurayami however was sitting by herself, staring toward Dragomon.

"So now what?" Palmon asked.

_**Hiroaki:**_

"Where are they?" Chiziru asked. "I'm scared."

"Me too," Mantaru said softly, "I'm not so sure it's safe here.

I wanted to say something to them, but I couldn't find a way to speak, no sound would come out—I had no confidence, no voice, and no happiness. But I had to keep fighting... for now. I had to fight for Yamato, and for Takeru... my sons. And now for Wizardmon. He was strange—that's for sure, but he was also my friend now. No, not my friend... my partner. He was my partner digimon.

Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes and two digimon flew out of them at a run, freezing upon sight of us.

"Who are you?" The first one said. It looked like a stuffed doll with a cape, only it's head was shaped like a pumpkin and had an axe sticking out of it.

"I'm Chiziru..." Chiziru said slowly, "Who are you?"

"Pumpkinmon," The Pumkin digimon said before motioning to his friend who was shaped like a tiny rock golem, "And this is Gotsumon."

Wizardmon turned around quickly to stare at the two digimon with wide eyes. He practically stormed toward them, coming back from the lead of the group where he had been standing and grabbed both of their arms. "You two?" He asked.

"Wizardmon?" Gotsumon asked.

"We heard you died!" Pumpkinmon nodded.

"I did." Wizardmon shot, "But so did the two of you."

"You know them?" Chiziru asked.

Wizardmon nodded, "They used to work for Myotismon, along with me. They aren't to be trusted."

"But we trust you. And you worked for him too." Mantaru said pointedly. Wizardmon realized that he'd been beaten—rather easily I might add, and released the digimon. "What are you two doing out here?" Mantaru asked them.

"We were doing what Wisemon told us," Gotsumon explained, "Trying to fight the humans and break into the safe house... but then we ran away."

"And now we have to keep running or Wisemon will find us and kill us!" Pumpkinmon said.

"Nice meeting you," Gotsumon said.

"But we gotta go," Pumpkinmon finished.

"Wait!" Chiziru said quickly. "Where is the safehouse?"

"Over there," Pumpkinmon said, pointing toward the large building in the distance.

"Is everyone still safe?" Mantaru asked them.

"Yes." Gotsumon said with a quick nod, "They've all escaped the safe house and are now running through the trees to find safety.

"Then that's where we should go." Mantaru said to Chiziru.

"I agree." Chiziru said, "We need to make sure the people stay safe."

I was shocked to hear them acting so protective over everyone. They had seemed like such free spirited, and selfish individuals who only cared about themselves really, but apparently I was wrong.

"We'll keep them on the right track." Mantaru smiled.

"With the flow..." Chiziru agreed before turning to the two digimon in front of them. "Lead us to them."

"R...right." Pumpkinmon nodded.

"This way!" Gotsumon grinned, setting off at a run into the trees with his friend.

"See ya, bro," Mantaru smiled, "We'll see each other again."

I nodded as he ran off and as Chiziru threw her arms around me. "It was nice to meet you," She said, running backwards into the trees and bushes with her thumb and pinky in the shape of a phone up to her ear, mouthing the words, "call me".

I raised my eyebrows at her as she turned and ran.

"Well that was interesting." Wizardmon said, voicing my very own opinion. "But we should continue our search for Wise—" He was cut off by a loud and high pitched scream not too far off to the west. Wizardmon and I looked to each other momentarily before setting off at a run.

We rounded a corner and then headed down the main street. I could see her! Wisemon had Kae's arm in his hold!

She was still screaming when we came near enough to do anything, and just as Wizardmon was readying his staff he was interrupted by a loud booming voice, "Raging Fire!"

A ball of fire shot toward Wisemon who released Kae and jumped back in surprise.

I looked to my left to see Haruhiko Takenouchi riding the back of his partner Centarumon as Jun Motomiya and Shuu Kido stood next to the flaming Meramon who had saved the day.

Wisemon looked toward us all and rolled his beady yellow eyes as Kae gasped in relief and latched herself to Toshiko who was no longer holding onto the Bakemon. She had Budmon in her one arm and used her other arm to lead Kae toward us for safety. Rei, however, did not move. She stood her ground and stared at Wisemon.

"Are you volunteering to take your friends place?" Wisemon asked her.

"Absolutely." She said determined, "So long as you promise not to hurt her—or any of the others!"

"Rei!" Toshiko said sharply, trying to hurry forward but being stopped by Kae.

"I don't make deals." He said, and then as his eyes shifted to red, he said in a very calm voice, "Eternal Nirvana," He tossed the two balls in his hands toward Rei and they began to spin around her quickly and rapidly before they began to glow.

"Rei!" Toshiko cried out, "No!" Toshiko pulled out of Kae's grasp and ran toward Kae as the balls began to connect themselves with streams of light.

Toshiko lunged forward, diving through the air in an attempt to push Rei out of the way. But just as she came in contact with her, the two girls vanished, and the red and yellow orbs fell from the sky, and landed, dulling of colour as they lay on the pavement.

My heart began pounding like mad and I could feel the anger rising inside me. They were my friends... he had just done—_whatever_ he had just done to them... and I was not going to let him get away with that.

"T...oshiko?" Haruhiko said as he slowly slid off of Centarumon's back and toward the place where his wife had just been. "What did you do to her?" Wisemon did not respond. Haruhiko ran toward the digimon and punched him in the face, knocking him off of the book he stood upon. "TELL ME!"

"Haru..." Shuu said slowly, "He... locked them in an eternal state of... "

"Of what?" Haruhiko said sharply, turning toward his friend, "Where are they Shuu? If you know then you have to tell me! You have to help me find her!"

"She's nowhere." Shuu said, his throat chopping his words. "They... don't exist... anymore."

Haruhiko turned toward Wisemon, his expression blank.

"They might come back!" Budmon said slowly gathering Haruhiko's attention. "If we can find a way to destroy Wisemon..."

"Then do that." Haruhiko ordered his digimon. "Right now."

"Yes sir," Centarumon nodded, raising his mechanical hand, "Solar Ray!" A large, bright beam of energy shot from his hand. I couldn't help but smile—that would have to do it!

But I was wrong. Wisemon brushed it aside with his hand and stared at Centarumon as if he had just preformed the most disgraceful act anyone could ever achieve.

"Shuu," Jun said in a whisper, "Help him..."

"Right—Meramon!" Shuu ordered.

Meramon ran straight toward Wisemon, his arms flaring up like sticks of inferno's on his body, and then spun quickly, hitting Wisemon hard with his arms.

Wisemon was pushed aside and to the ground. I knew I shouldn't let my hopes up again, and I was right this time. Wisemon pulled himself to his feet and wiped his face with his sleeve before staring at Meramon, his eyes full of anger.

"I suppose this means war." Wisemon said in his cracking, ancient voice as he rose his hands in the air. "Come my soldiers..."

Suddenly holes seemed to open in the ground, and in the sky—and then, through those holes, digimon of all shapes and sizes shot out. Clambering or flying.

"Hiroaki—I think it's time I join the fray." Wizardmon said. I nodded to him and he, along with Centarumon and Meramon ran out into the battle.

And then everything was happening at once. The digimon that Wisemon had summoned were strong, but our digimon were keeping up with them—but that left Wisemon wide open, and free to do whatever he pleased. He hurried toward his book, and leapt on it, and as he did so, it closed with him in it and sank into the ground.

I stared at the place where the book had been, confused—what had happened?

And then I heard a scream. I looked back quickly to see Wisemon standing on his book behind Jun and Kae, his long fingered hands clamped tightly around both of them.

"Let me go!" Jun growled, biting the digimon's hand as hard as she could. Wisemon swung his foot out and kicked her legs out from under her, causing her to fall to the ground, her arm still in his hand.

"Jun!" Kae whimpered, tears in her eyes. "I won't let you hurt any more of us!" Kae said flatly, kicking Wisemon in the leg. He released her in surprise as Shuu tackled him from the back, taking him to the ground, freeing Jun. Kae hurried to help Jun to her feet as Shuu and Wisemon rolled around on the ground.

Wisemon won quickly however, wrapping his hand around Shuu's throat.

Jun ran quickly toward the yellow and red orbs on the ground, passing Centarumon who had Haruhiko on his back now. And soon she returned, readying her aim and throwing the balls straight toward Wisemon's head. The yellow one hit him in the head, drawing his attention and the red one was thrown directly at his elbow. When it hit, he lurched his arm and released Shuu who fell to the ground in a heap, gasping for air, his glasses askew. Jun hurried toward him and fell to her knees.

"Nice aim sweetie," He said as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, causing his glasses to fall off completely.

Wisemon glared down at the two of them, ready to strike but Kae spoke up quickly. "I thought I was going first!"

Wisemon looked toward her and nodded, "That you were..." He stepped slowly toward her, his book laying many feet away from him.

"Meramon!" Shuu yelled, "Help!"

Meramon turned to Wisemon and shouted, "Roaring Fire!"

"Pandora Dialogue!" Wisemon said as he turned around and waved his hand, creating a mirror in front of him, and the fire Meramon had shot, hit the mirror directly. I saw something glowing in the corner of my eye and turned to see Wisemon's large book.

"What's happening?" Jun asked in a panicked voice.

"We're going to win," Shuu smiled. "Just watch..."

Meramon's attack glowed in the mirror for a moment before shooting back out toward Meramon repeatedly. I balled my fists up—how was this good? Surely Shuu had to be wrong...

But as the attacks hit Meramon he grew, and grew, and grew until he was at least three times the size he had been before. I let my jaw drop as he raised his arms into the air and shouted, "Magma Blast!"

He shot flame, out of his hands and to the sky, returning him to his normal size.

"How is that helpful?" Jun asked Shuu.

"What goes up, must come down!" Kae smiled as she watched the fire. I turned to watch as well in time to see the fire fall from the sky. They looked like meteors falling all around us, and even though I should have been scared about getting hit—I wasn't.

Each meteor hit one of Wisemon's digimon army until they were all gone from existence—just like... Rei and Toshiko.

We all looked toward Wisemon who quickly looked toward his book in a panic, and that's when I realized that he needed his book to summon the digimon—and even further, he would need it to summon power.

I looked quickly to Wizardmon and pointed toward the book and he nodded, running quickly, his staff ready.

"No!" Wisemon shouted, pushing past Kae, and setting off at a run toward the book.

"Poison Thorns!" Budmon shouted, popping up in front of Wisemon and sending the thorns toward the digimon who jumped aside and swatted Budmon out of the air. But Budmon's actions had distracted Wisemon for long enough. Wizardmon beat him to the book and slammed his staff down upon the book, splitting the seam and breaking the book in half.

Wisemon cried out in pain as he threw his hands to his chest.

"Charge." Haruhiko said flatly from Centarumon's back as his partner ran toward the evil digimon whose hands had fallen. Centarumon ran his hand right through Wisemon's chest as we all watched with bated breath.

"I... have lost..." Wisemon said just before he, and his broken book burst into tiny bits of dust.

We all stood still, and silent as the dust floated through the air.

"Where is Toshiko?" Haruhiko asked Budmon, jumping from his digmon's back, "You said she'd come back..."

"I don't know!" Budmon admitted, "I don't know where she is!" Budmon had tears pouring from his eyes now, and soon he was followed by Jun, and Kae, and Haruhiko. Shuu was trying to comfort Jun as Meramon, Centarumon and Wizardmon bowed their heads in respect to the fallen women, Wizardmon even taking his hat off.

I heard a faint buzzing noise as I tried to force my tears back, and so I looked toward them. Hoping for anything to distract me from my tears. The buzzing was coming from the yellow and red balls that Wisemon had thrown. They were glowing and buzzing.

"Guys..." I said, though my voice was unused to be used, and was croaky, so I cleared my throat. "Guys!"

Everyone looked toward me and then I motioned to the balls as streams of light connected them just as before. They were spinning faster and faster until suddenly they exploded into bits of dust acting like confetti for the two woman who suddenly stood under it all.

"Toshiko!" Haruhiko gasped with relief as he ran toward her, running through the dust, he lifted her and spun her around as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.

Rei was feeling around, trying to understand how she was alive, and what had happened, she looked up to me and smiled, before noticing my solemn face. I looked toward Toshiko and Haruhiko as she smiled up at him.

"I'm so... sorry." She said to him.

"I'm sorry too," He said quickly. "I love you..."

"I love you too!" She said, crying with happiness as she stood on her toes to kiss her husband.

I looked around to everyone, who was smiling at them, but I found myself unable to... they were happy—and I was happy for them... but that didn't change the fact that I was unhappy... Natsuko was probably dead... and that left me alone.

My phone buzzed at that moment and I pulled it out of my pocket glumly and flipped it open and suddenly I was laughing.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04:**With everyone together what will happen now? What are they to do now that Fanglongmon and Dragomon are the only loose ends? Will they have to split up once more? Or will they take one enemy down at a time? All these questions answered next time, on Digimon Adventure 04!


	49. The End is Near

**Y/N:** The second last chapter is done. I hope you enjoy it, and know that we're hard at work on the final chapter of Digimon Adventure 04 while you do so. On another note, please head over to my profile and check out our newest story—a collection of various one-shots that take place in the universe we've been fleshing out with our 03 and 04 stories. We've got two posted today in honour of Hallowe'en, and I hope you have a good one!

**U/N:** Soooo uhm... battles to me never seem like they're long or epic enough, but i hope this satisfies all of you... It was the hardest battle we've written to date, and there were two of them D: but it was fun enough aha :P well anyway, i hope you like it and leave a review. There's only one more chapter... and i'm actually REALLY excited to write it... so happy... it's going to be such a freaking relief after this whole story. Wrapping everything up. I hope you like it and stuff though :P and the end bit, i was trying to be as descriptive as i could-so i hope you like that Crestoflight :P anyway, enjoy :D and Happy Halloween and stuff :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 49: The End is Near**

_**Daisuke:**_

It so wasn't fair. Koushiro and Sora got to fuse their digimon together. What was that about? Ken and I had fused our digimon in the past with jogress digivolving, and Miyako and Hikari, Iori and Takeru did it too. But that was because we had special digivices, and Taichi and Yamato made Omnimon because they were awesome and had no way to win if they didn't.

So what was it that was too much for Koushiro, Mimi and Sora to handle? It wasn't as if they were surrounded by a never ending supply of Fanglongmon's digimon soldiers or Dragomon's demonic shadows. They just had the _one_ digimon.

It really wasn't fair.

"So now what?"

That was the question wasn't it? The question that no one knew the answer to.

"We have two options," Taichi said. "Dragomon or Fanglongmon. I'm all for getting either one out of the picture."

"I want them both gone," Mimi said shivering in fear. Koushiro—of all people—put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his chest. She smiled softly and hugged his middle. I seriously missed something big here.

"I think I stand for everyone when I say we all do," Yamato added.

"So here's the tricky part," Taichi said. "Which one?"

"Fanglongmon," Ken said. "Dragomon will be nothing in comparison to him. Especially once Fanglongmon is gone."

"But Dragomon pulls at your nightmares, your every fear," Hikari protested. "He'll be able to stave us off without having to land a hand on us."

"He doesn't have a hand," Jou said. "Just tentacles. Lots and lots of them."

"It doesn't matter which we chose at this point," Koushiro interrupted. "They need to be taken down _now_. The longer we put it off the less of a chance we'll have at winning."

"You think they're going to get even more minions?" Takeru asked.

"No," Iori said. "But that's the point. They're drawing this out. They know we're human. We're vulnerable, and we need at least eight hours of sleep to function at our best on a day to day basis. We haven't had any sleep for nearly two straight days, maybe more. We're vulnerable."

"And with each hour we grow weaker," Sora surmised. "Yeah. I see it now."

"So we take them both out within the next hour?" Willis said. "That doesn't sound very plausible."

"It isn't," Michael agreed. "Not unless there are two separate teams. I'm thinking of staying here anyway, and monitoring the progress of this battle. I'd be no use to you guys with my digimon being a baby. But I _can_ be of use here."

"I'm not going," Momoe said. "It was stupid enough to allow Meiyomon to bring me this far. I'm not risking anything bigger."

"Good plan," Miyako commented, looking at the now squirming baby in her sister's arms. It was incredibly stupid to join the battle with a baby. I couldn't see any positive to it. But she'd needed to come. I understood that. Michael, Natsuni, Tatum, Monzaemon, they were all going to fight. She needed someone to help protect her and the baby. The battleground was the only place that that could happen. Unfortunately, as I said, it was a _battleground_.

"I say you go for Fanglongmon," Natsuni suggested.

"You know nothing," Noriko sneered at her.

"I agree with Natsuni," Iori said sheepishly. "He's the most dangerous of the two. If we can lure Dragomon away from the water, he's less of a threat. And if we take Fanglongmon out, he'll be desperate to keep control. He'll make mistakes. And we can get him then."

"Clearly you don't understand how this works," Noriko said. "You're supposed to agree with your girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Natsuni and I asked together. Damn. Now I'd have to eat my shoe.

"There's no time for that," he snapped. "And you're not my girlfriend. It's _one_ date."

"He's right," Hikari said, trying not to look upset by her protector's choice in dates. "But I'm thinking Dragomon is actually the better option."

"I want him gone the most I think," Mimi said.

"I'm going wherever Mimi and Sora decide," Koushiro said. "Mostly Sora, because of our digimon, but…"

"We'll probably go with Mimi," Sora agreed, sending a wink in his direction. "We've got to keep her safe."

"And Rosemon's got amazing powers," Mimi said. "Don't forget that."

"I sure won't," Palmon said cheekily.

"So Koushiro, Mimi, Sora, Hikari and I go to Dragomon?" Taichi said. "Is that what this battle is coming to? Two separate teams?"

"It sure looks that way," I said gloomily. I had to take on Fanglongmon. I had to rid myself of him completely. Taichi and Hikari, as much as I loved them, they didn't understand the _need_ we had to get rid of Fanglongmon. He'd invaded our privacy. More than that, he took us over, left us no control. I shouldn't have let him get in. That's not who I was. I could let everything roll off my shoulders, never letting anything—except maybe Jun—get under my skin. But the thing with my parents, it was taking over my life. I couldn't handle it anymore. So what if I wasn't the kid they really wanted me to be. I was Daisuke Motomiya, and Fanglongmon better be shaking in his boots, because I was coming for him. "I'm going to Fanglongmon."

"Me too," Ken said immediately.

"And me," Yamato agreed.

"I will come also. I have no digimon, but I need to see this. I need to watch him fall. I will help anyway I can," Kurayami added.

"I'm not liking the looks of that roster," Taichi said guiltily. I rolled my eyes. He _would_ realize that all of the volunteers had been Fanglongmon's victims.

"He doesn't have me anymore," I told him. "He can't get me anymore. He doesn't know it, but _I_ do. I won't let him get to me. There's nothing for him to use against me anymore. I'm _not_ the leader. You are. I know that. I knew that before, but I was angry, at myself and my parents and everything in between. But I'm not anymore. I can do this. I promise."

"He never had me," Iori put in. "And I'll be going with them. I've seen him up close. He's a monster that needs to be stopped, and he knew about my grandpa. I'm going to help keep grandpa and everyone else away from him."

"Me too," Takeru said. "As much as I'd like to tag team with Hikari in yet another battle, I've got something to settle with Fanglongmon. He's not going to get away with sending Piedmon after my mom."

"Takeru," Hikari said warningly.

"I'm not going to let my need for revenge get in my way. I want to avenge her, but I know I've got to keep my focus. Worry about Dragomon Hikari, I've got this," Takeru said.

Clearly there was some trouble in the hope-and-light paradise.

"I'll go with Hikari then," Willis said. Ah, I realized as Takeru was unable to hold back a quick look of distain. Willis was the cause of the trouble. Clearly, he'd never heard of the phrase 'bros before hoes'. Not that I was saying Hikari was one. She was the sweetest girl I'd ever met. I just meant that Willis wasn't much of a friend to Takeru if he was going after 'his girl'.

To be fair Takeru totally 'went after' her while she was my object of affections, but two wrongs do not equal a right here.

"That'll make me feel better," Taichi said. "Yeah, having two extra megas would be great."

"I'm a big girl Taichi," Hikari said rolling her eyes.

"One that was pale as death not even three days ago. You're getting the protection whether you want it or not," Taichi said. "Now, Michael is staying here with Momoe and the baby—who still has not been named—and I take it Tatum is staying as well?"

Tatum nodded. "It's for the best. I don't have a crest, and a champion isn't going to do anything against either of them. It's better if I just stay where I'll be useful."

"Natsuni and Noriko will stay too," Iori added, pointedly ignoring Noriko's glare. "So you'll have Goblimon and Impon's help with things."

"Sounds good," Michael said.

"But Iori," Noriko whined.

"Shut up stalker-lady," Natsuni said. "Do you want to die because you chose the wrong place to be? Or maybe you want to kill Iori because he'll be too busy protecting you to save himself if you go."

Noriko was quick to shut up after that. I was glad that Iori had someone to look after him, like Natsuni did, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish I had that too. My sister was the closest thing I had, and she was out there, somewhere in Odaiba, maybe hurt or dead or trapped, and I had no idea how she'd feel about me now. She didn't know that I'd given up everything because the badest of bad guys gave me a flimsy little promise. Would she still want to be my big sister when she found out? Would she take back the promise she made to always be there for me whenever she could since our parents were jerks? I hoped not. I needed her. She was something that Hikari or Mrs Yagami or Taichi could ever replace. No matter how hard I tried to, I still needed Mom and Dad. Jun was the best I was going to get though; she was the last bit of family I had that still wanted me. Mom and Dad through me out because of a noodle cart. A noodle cart that would never get to take another stroll around town if I couldn't win this fight.

"Okay," Taichi said pulling focus again. "Michael knows his team. I've got Sora, Koushiro—with Eaglemon—and Mimi, hopefully with Rosemon."

"Definitely with Rosemon," Palmon said. "Just give me the go ahead, and I'm there."

"Good," Taichi said sending a brief smile at her. "I'll also have Greymon, Angewomon, Antylamon and Rapidmon, Hikari and Willis. Right?" After a short chorus of agreement he pushed forward. "We're after Dragomon. We'll probably find him at the coast. Daisuke is the leader of team two."

I perked up at that. I was the leader again. Of yet another team _two_, but I was thrilled.

"Team two will include Yamato with Garurumon, Daisuke with UlforceVeedramon, Iori and his new partner—"His name is Vikemon!"—Ken and Takeru. Wormmon and Patamon are okay to digivolve? They're not injured are they?"

"We're fine," Patamon said, fluttering into the air to prove it. "I'll be mega whenever Takeru gives the signal."

"I'm just waiting for Ken," Wormmon agreed.

"Good, good," Taichi said. "Things are looking great. That leaves Jou and Miyako. Where are you going?"

"I…uh…" Miyako said, glancing at Ken and then looking to me. She was asking me with her eyes whether it would be safe for her, and _Ken_, if she were to fight by our sides. I nodded. "Fanglongmon!"

"Really?" Jou asked. "I was going to say Dragomon…but maybe I should—"

"Don't change your mind on my account," she said. "You need to go where your gut tells you. We're going to be winging this battle after all."

"Sounds about right," Jou said with a humourless laugh. "Ikkakumon and I will be with you Taichi."

"And Aquilamon and I are at your service Daisuke. I _told_ you that you would always be my leader."

I smiled at her. "Thanks."

"Keep my sister safe, Daisuke," Momoe threatened. "Ken had best be watching out for her too. My baby wants her favourite aunt to come home. Her dad too. I've already said this, but you have to—"

"I will," Jou promised, though he looked strained. How much did I miss by turning evil? I'd have to get someone to remind me never to do it again. I felt so out of the loop. Maybe not as much as Willis seemed to be, but _still_…

"Then we fight," Taichi declared. "Now. Not later. We're going to have to beat the clock."

We sort of let out a war cry, before splitting into two teams, clambering onto the largest digimon we were able to, so we could get there faster.

"Fanglongmon is going down!" I cried into the wind.

_**Hikari:**_

I was staring at the ground as the air rushed past. It was not as comfortable riding on the golden feathers of Eaglemon as it was to be on Nefertimon or in Angewomon's arms, but comfort wasn't our priority right now, there were bigger and more important things to fret over at the moment—especially since I was ready to fall asleep so discomfort was actually a plus.

But I was growing almost agitated with everyone trying to keep me safe. There was literally no way for me to get hurt right now unless I were to throw myself off of the side of Eaglemon, which I supposed would hurt really bad, but I didn't get that option anymore. Willis and Taichi were both right next to me. Mimi and Jou were sitting right in front of me, while Sora and Koushiro were right behind. Greymon had digivolved into Metalgreymon to fly because, despite the size of Eaglemon there wasn't enough room for our digimon too. Angewoman, and Rapidmon were flying below us while Antylamon, and Ikkakumon ran along the ground. Palmon was sitting in Mimi's lap talking quietly with her.

There was a lot to think about though. Like Takeru's mother... I felt awful—but there was nothing I could really do to help or change it now—he'd have to let time run its course and help heal him, but he wasn't allowing it to. He was seeking revenge, and letting the anger take control of him, but that wasn't how he should have been acting—I tried to help him figure that out but he wouldn't let me.

There was also Lopmon and the promise that I had made to her, to help her find whatever it was that she wanted to find... but I didn't know where to start without knowing what it was or where it was. But I couldn't push it from my mind because I could see that it was hurting her—longing for something, and I knew how it felt. And of course Kurayami's mother. I had promised myself that I would find her, and help Kurayami get closure. I wasn't sure if her mother was dead or not, but I needed to find her in any case—but I knew where she was... the man from the temple... he had told me that her mother was in Fanglongmon's palace—but she wasn't there... I had looked. I'd rescued a large sum of people but she wasn't there, I could see each of their faces, but none of them looked like the woman I had seen in the memories in the cave in the Dark Ocean. I had looked in the cells and cages as we passed, but she wasn't there—I couldn't find her... and I felt bad—but I wasn't willing to give up just yet. I had to find her too...

And even further on that point... who was that boy? The one who was trying to help me find Kurayami's mother? The one I had seen on the way to Fanglongmon's cages? He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it. And more importantly why did he know what he did? It was strange...

And of course there were my friends that were going off on their own to face the evil God of the digital world. They could die in the next few hours and I wouldn't even know! Iori was my little protector, and now that he'd done his job, how careless would he be? He'd already been stabbed in the heart once today, and there was no one else to sacrifice their lives so he could keep living... And Takeru was there—he was my best friend and I couldn't allow him to continue doing whatever he wanted—what was I supposed to do without him if he were to die?

And of course my new friend Kurayami... whether she thought of me as a friend didn't matter right now because I still cared about her a lot... and she was in danger... but then again, so was everyone else... so was I.

Daisuke however I honestly didn't have any fear for—and I had a bad feeling about that. He was like a brother to me, and I was so proud of him... so happy that he'd manage to make it through Fanglongmon's hold on his own, and for some reason that seemed to put a barrier around him in my mind—he was perfectly fine, he was wonderful, and he wouldn't be hurt... but I knew it was foolish to think as such. But he had ranted to Taichi about why he had moved into my house in the first place... it made me happy to finally know what had happened, even if there really was nothing I could do about it.

"Don't worry Sora," Koushiro was saying from behind me, "I'm sure everyone is fine."

"What?" She asked as if being brought from her thoughts just as I was. I tried to think about what she might have been lingering upon in her mind but all I could come up with was Yamato. I wasn't sure what had happened between them exactly but I knew it wasn't pleasant. But I knew nothing more about Sora really... The most I'd talked to her since she broke up with Taichi was when she and I were running from Ladydevimon only forty-eight hours ago when she had been ranting about Yamato's proposal. Remembering that only made thinking about their possible-break-up even sadder. I wondered for a moment if Sora would think I was mad at her, having not spoken to her since she caused Taichi to ignore me, but I wasn't... I hoped she knew that.

"Your mother." Koushiro said simply.

"What? I'm not—"

Koushiro cut her off, but I could tell she didn't mind, she was just lying. "I know you care about her. I mean, I know you've been living with Yamato ever since... you know... but honestly Sora, you don't need to worry about her. I'm sure she's fine, and I'm sure you and her will be able to reunite and make up soon."

Sora didn't say anything after that, I could tell she was thinking... I was thinking too; what was wrong with Sora and her mother? No one ever told me anything...

"Daisuke was fighting with his Mama too!"

I didn't instantly recognize the voice but I didn't have time to place it as Sora let out a loud scream drowning out the voice's next few words. We all spun around quickly to see what was happening. Sora was frantically ripping her backpack off of her back and tossing it in front of me. It landed next to me, and at first I couldn't see what the problem was until I noticed it moving around. I jumped, startled, until the zipper practically ripped open and Otamamon stuck his head out. He was smiling broadly up at me.

"Hi Hikari!" He said happily.

"Oh thank God..." Sora said heavily whilst clutching her chest. "That... why were you in my backpack..."

"Oh, well—" Otamamon started as Sora retrieved her backpack.

"I'm afraid that's my fault." Mimi admitted with a shy smile, "He was scared and your backpack was sitting there—and I knew there would be room, so I just... tossed him in there."

"A little warning next time?" Sora asked with a giggle.

"I found this though!" Otamamon said in amazement as he dragged out a long shining piece of silver that I recognized as the key Sora and Mimi had found.

"I'd almost forgotten about the keys..." Koushiro said reaching forward and ripping the key from Otamamon's hand as if he were nothing but an inanimate object. I patted Otamamon on the head lightly as Koushiro looked the key over in his hand. "From what I remember from my research, this key was simply made of Earthly minerals. Though I can't be sure as my research was destroyed."

"I'm so sorry..." Mimi said, looking down into Palmon's flower.

"I don't regret it for a moment." Koushiro said confidently which perked Mimi up instantly. I knew I missed something between the two of them as well, but I didn't need to be filled in there, not only was it their own personal business but I knew I could probably figure out the gist of it all.

"So what are you saying?" Sora asked, placing her hand out for her key.

"I'm saying that this key..." Koushiro trailed off, but cleared his throat and continued again, "Well assuming that my hypothesis is correct..."

"You think it's the key to Earth?" Willis asked, drawing a conclusion from Koushiro's rambling. I smiled at him and he took my hand gently.

Koushiro nodded, "Exactly that actually." He dropped the key into Sora's hand, and reached into his pocket pulling out a similar key but of a bronze colour. "This key had traces of digital data on it, and upon using it I discovered that it led us straight into the digital world... and so it only makes sense."

"That does make sense..." Taichi said slowly, nodding, "But what about Hikari's key?" He looked toward me and smiled, and I forced myself to smile back despite how upset I was that he, along with everyone else only saw me as a little girl in need of protection. I wasn't sick anymore and everyone needed to see that. And even if I was sick there was nothing they could do about it, and I didn't need to be protected my whole life. I'd find a way around the problem.

"Hikari has a key too?" Palmon asked, looking up at Mimi, "Does everyone have one but you?"

"I don't." Willis, Taichi and Jou said together. Jou wasn't turned around though, but he was clearly listening to the conversation while looking at whatever was in his hands.

"I don't know." Koushiro said, answering Taichi's question. "I don't have enough information gathered to make a valid assumption."

"I know..." Sora said suddenly, looking up from the key in her hands. "Ladydevimon was talking about how Fanglongmon threw the keys away when he knew he would no longer need them."

"Which would mean..." Koushiro said, clearly seeing where Sora was going with this problem, "That Hikari's key leads to the Dark Ocean!" Sora squeaked a little upon finding out the mystery behind the key and exchanged a quick high five with Koushiro.

"But what about Iori's key?" I asked, finally speaking up, forgetting my pledge to not speak to anyone who was trying to protect me, "And Kurayami's? They both have them too, and I'm pretty sure there are no more worlds secretly combined with this one." Everyone was set off into deep thought for a moment, but it was the two most unlikely sources of knowledge that spoke up.

"I...ori's key..." Mimi uttered slowly, "He said he used it by accident—he was talking to Natsuni about it and I was listening..." Mimi seemed to be perfectly nervous with being the one to spout the information.

"Where did it lead?" Palmon asked with a fierce curiosity.

"The land where we defeated Myotismon for good." Mimi said with a little more confidence now that she was speaking directly to her best friend. "The World of Dreams. Of course that was just his assumption."

"But the World of Dreams isn't here." Taichi pointed out, "Why would Fanglongmon throw it away."

"He didn't." I said suddenly, "Iori found that key on Skullsatamon's staff. If Fanglongmon had thrown it away his minion wouldn't have picked it back up. There must be more keys." I was very confident in saying this even though I had no real proof to support my theories.

"Well that would make sense." Koushiro nodded, "Ladydevimon mentioned there being more keys... But five keys shot from the gap at the camp."

"Then we just haven't found all five." Palmon smiled.

It seemed too late to be discovering all of this information, and it seemed ridiculous to talk about it now, while headed toward the battle of our lives—but for some reason it seemed much more important to me than I would have cared to admit.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the large white key that I had taken from Miko's possession only two days prior. It seemed so pure to be the key to something so dark... but then again—perhaps it was meant to lock it up... to keep the darkness sealed forever."But what about Kurayami's key then?" I asked again.

And that was then the second most unlikely source of knowledge spoke up. "There are two doors to the Dark Ocean." Taichi said with a grin, obviously thinking back to when he had saved me from that place finally. It was funny to think about how I felt back then—ignored... now I felt the exact opposite. But he was correct. There were two doors, which meant that Kurayami and I had the keys to both doors of the Ocean... and Koushiro had the key to the Digital World, and Sora had the key to Earth. The keys to all three worlds were right here on this one Digimon's back...

Suddenly my hands were shaking as an idea formed quickly in my head. I dropped the key and it bounced off of Otamamon's head. I ran my fingers through my hair nervously and bit my lip, pulling my other hand from Willis quickly.

"Why are we taking so long?" Jou asked, finally turning toward us and pocketing whatever he had been looking at.

"I'm just trying to take him by surprise, so I'm circling..." Eaglemon said in the mixed voices of Phoenixmon and Herculeskabuterimon. "Besides, you all seem really busy."

"Oh we are." I said suddenly, unable to keep both my sudden excitement and nervousness at bay.

"You dropped this..." Otamamon said, handing me the key I had dropped while rubbing the spot on his head that it had bounced off.

"Sorry," I told him quickly. "We need to land." I ignored the incredulous looks on the others faces as I stared down into the palm of my hand.

"What, why?" Willis asked me trying to take my hand again, but I pulled it away to examine the key, I noticed the look of confusion on his face so I turned to him quickly.

"The only way to defeat Dragomon is to get him out of his home soil—water—whatever." I explained with a grin, hoping someone would catch on and finish my sentences like everyone else seemed to do.

"I don't understand what you're saying." Koushiro said with a slight frown and his jaw tight as he thought of all the possibilities. But I knew if Koushiro didn't catch on then no one else would either.

"We have to split the worlds up again silly!" I said with a grin. "We have these keys, and what are they for if not for opening a passage way for the worlds?" The others still looked confused but Sora was the first to give me the benefit of the doubt. She nodded and patted Eaglemon who obeyed her instantly and practically dropped to the ground. I was suddenly grabbed from three sides by Willis, Taichi and Otamamon as the wind rushed around us and all I could do was to roll my eyes.

The moment the bird landed I slid down its wing and landed on the ground with a smile, Otamamon being the first to follow me.

"So what's your plan?" Willis asked, sliding down next and landing beside me.

"The connections!" I smiled, "Remember when we were talking earlier?"

"Oh yeah!" Willis nodded, "Keeping the perfect balance? That was my idea—you're welcome!" He was smiling broadly but I shook my head and his face fell.

"No—not that one. Takeru's idea." I smiled at him. I could tell he was upset but I wasn't sure why, and so when the others followed us down the slide I tried to talk, but I was cut off quickly.

"Why did we stop Hikari?" I turned to see Angewomon floating two feet in the air behind us, but I couldn't blame her, I'd do the same thing if I had wings—always fly.

"I have to do something really important... I think." I wasn't sure if it was going to work but it had to.

I noticed Antylamon, Metalgreymon, Ikkakumon and Rapidmon closing in on us as well so I turned quickly toward the others.

"Please hurry," Koushiro said hastily, "We don't have much time."

"Actually we don't have any time." Taichi corrected, "We should go. Whatever it is you had planned should wait—"

"Let's hear it Taichi," Jou said, placing his hand on Taichi's arm and stopping him from moving. Taichi muttered a small "fine..." before falling back in his place in the crowd.

"So—" I tried.

"JUUUUUUUUUUNIE!" I very loud scream burst out of Otamamon who was standing around my feet as he shot off at a run toward something behind us. We all turned quickly to see a group of four people and one very human shaped fire. "Junie! Junie JUNIE!" Otamamon was literally crying as he ran toward the female in the center of the group who I recognized as Jun, Daisuke's sister.

"Otamamon!" She squeaked as she ran faster toward the violet ball, running across the paved parking lot of the safe house. I wasn't sure what they were doing here, but I knew being here would only draw Dragomon's attention so we'd have to work fast, but I knew that wasn't going to happen because everyone seemed to be recognizing someone.

"Rei...?" Taichi gasped.

"Shuu?" Jou said, wide eyed.

"Meramon?" Sora joined in.

"Ken's mom?" Mimi asked.

That was everyone there was to recognize at least, though soon it didn't matter as they were all crowding around us now, and my theory was being pushed from everyone's minds.

"Where's dad?" Sora asked Shuu and Meramon receiving a shrug from the both of them.

"What are you doing here? With a Meramon?" Jou asked with a slight laugh as he hugged his older brother Shuu.

"It's a long story!" Shuu said, laughing along with his brother.

"Where is Ken?" Mrs Ichijouji asked slowly.

"He's on his way to fight Fanglongmonmon..." Sora said with a sigh, clearly upset that her father wasn't here.

"Rei... what the hell?" Was all Taichi could manage as he stared at his friend. It took me a moment to figure out what was wrong, but then I remembered—Rei was supposed to be in a wheelchair! "Rei..." Taichi said again, "What... the _hell_?"

"I don't know!" She said with a grin and a hearty laugh. "I just... the worlds combined and I could walk!" She was suddenly unable to restrain herself from laughing, and soon Taichi was joining in and hugging her.

"I missed you!" Otamamon smiled up at Jun.

"I missed you too!" Jun grinned, "I've been looking for you!"

"Me too!" Otamamon laughed, "But for you!" Jun hugged Otamamon and something glowed in her pocket—I knew it was a digivice, but she was too content in her hug with Otamamon to notice it.

"Guys!" I shouted, after clearing my throat. "You all need to listen to me now, I have the goggles on." Everyone rolled their eyes and looked to me, and I couldn't blame them. I too was sick of hearing that the reason everyone had to listen was because of the stupid goggles but it was the only way to gather their attention so I had to use it to my advantage. "Gennai said to me—the last thing Gennai said to me was that the bonds were the most important thing that anyone could use. And it didn't make sense to me—I thought maybe he meant the crests... a lot of them are based upon the bonds we make—but now I think I might understand him... It was Takeru that actually helped me—which he didn't mean to do, and it's something he said a while ago—but the bonds we have are the most important things right? They will help us... split the worlds up once more." I noticed that I was quickly losing Taichi and Koushiro in my rant, "We are the travellers. The only people with the power to go between the worlds—us digidestined... and because we have the crests... we have the only traits that are in all worlds. We have everything we need."

"I don't under...stand." Willis said slowly, "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that the digital world and the human world have the same landscaping..." I said, confusing myself this time, "They are the same worlds—just of different matter, and we are the mediators between those worlds. And if every digimon has a human counterpart... I feel like Angewomon's... is my mother. She is the most courageous and wonderful person I know—but she embodies the crest of Light as well as I do, and as well as Angewomon. There is a balance. And because of everything my mother has been through—I just saw her recently—I think even she knows that she means something in this. I think it makes sense. We have a balance between the two worlds and the keys to unlock the passage."

"You really think there's that much balance?" Taichi asked, "Dad isn't that courageous..."

"He led all of Fanglongmon's prisoners to safety." I informed him.

"My mom? Knowledgeable?" Koushiro asked.

"I'm not saying the idea is flawless!" I protested.

"Your mom was the strategist in the battle against the army," Willis said, stepping up and taking my hand, and my side in the argument, "At the top of that building."

"Really?" Koushiro asked as he followed Willis' point to the nearby building.

"My mom isn't pure... she doesn't know anything about it." Mimi groaned.

"I bet she's learning from her daughter." I said encouragingly, "From you."

"My dad? Faith?" Jou said in the same tone as Mimi.

"It might not be dad... not yet." Shuu said, patting Jou on the back, "But I've certainly got faith in you little brother."

"I don't know Hikari, the plan doesn't seem to work in my head." Sora said looking toward the ground, "my parents know nothing of love."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that..." Shuu said with a wink, confusing Sora.

"It's worth a try guys..." Willis said encouragingly. "What have we got to lose?"

"Well what about the Dark Ocean?" Taichi asked, glaring at me, "The dark ocean has no connection with us—"

"Leave that to me." I said cutting him off.

"But—" He tried, but Rei stopped him, gently placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Taichi... trust her." She said encouragingly. Taichi and Rei shared a knowing look which I had a feeling had to do with the fact that the moment the worlds split apart Rei would cease to have the ability to walk. But Taichi slowly turned toward me and nodded.

I looked to Sora and Koushiro who were both motioning for me to go first, and so I did, turning away from the others, I stuck the key out into the air in front of me as if unlocking a door and turned it slowly. Instantly the world around me lit up in a blinding flash of pink light, illuminating the area around me and cutting through the total darkness. There was a strange pull as darkness began swirling around the key as a hole opened up in the air. Soon the darkness from the dark ocean was pulling into the hole.

I looked over my shoulder and nodded at the others who both followed my suit, and unlocked invisible doors. Their keys did a much less dramatic sort of event, but both opened an arched doorway in front of them. I smiled as I watched them open the door, but I turned back to my own key quickly as I lurched forward.

"Hikari!" Taichi gasped, lunging forward and grabbing onto me and keeping me balanced. I had to admit—that time I was thankful. I smiled at him as he helped me keep steady as the darkness swirled in the air as if it were draining through the hole I had opened up.

"Three... two..." I heard Koushiro and Sora saying behind me. "One!" I looked over my shoulder to see them both pulling the doors open. With a loud _bang_ the entire world began shifting violently, the earth shaking and changing shape as the darkness continued to pour through the gateway.

"Taichi!" Rei gasped, clutching at her legs as they began to wobble. Taichi exchanged glances with Willis and nodded as he hurried toward Rei to catch her as her legs stopped working and as she fell to the ground. I felt myself being pulled closer to the hole as my heart began to pound faster and faster... I couldn't go back there... I didn't ever want to see the Dark Ocean again...

Soon there were hands around me and when I looked up I saw Willis and I instantly felt safe as the last of the darkness left the world.

My hand fell limp and the key dropped from my hand as I fell to my knees and gasped for air, keeping my face in my hands.

"That was so scary..." I heard Otamamon say quietly.

"But..." Taichi said slowly, "It worked—Hikari it worked!"

I looked up quickly and looked around. I felt an instant sense of relief as I saw the sky. Clear and starry, the moon—the totally normal Earth moon... The ground was no longer littered with puddles of dark, mucky water, the trees that had sprouted at random from all over the digital world were now gone as well... I couldn't help but smile as Willis pulled me to my feet. I began laughing as I spun around on the spot.

"We did it!" I said excitedly.

"I like your sister," Rei laughed.

"We did it!" I exclaimed as I ran over to throw my arms around Koushiro and Sora, "We did it!"

"I still don't think the theory makes sense." Koushiro said slowly.

"It was flawed." Mimi agreed.

"But who cares really?" Jou said with a grin. "So long as it worked?"

"Well... we should stop celebrating." Willis said, bringing the mood down drastically.

"Why is that?" Mrs Ichijouji asked nervously.

"Because..." Willis said, throwing his hand up in a point without looking. "Him." Over the tops of the trees I could see a large blue head and long red wings. It was him... Dragomon.

_**Taichi:**_

"Okay," I said, looking at Dragomon and back to my team. "He hasn't seen us yet in any case, so that's a good sign."

"If we're quiet, maybe we'll be able to get a jump on him?" Mimi said.

"Sounds good to me," Sora said. "We'll need just about every advantage we can get."

"But we don't," Koushiro corrected. "With the Dark Ocean back where it belongs, his source of power is gone. He has to rely on the abilities he has naturally now, and whatever shadows he has left."

"Sounds even better," Sora teased.

"Right," Jou's brother said. I thought he was Shuu, and not Shin, but I was a little distracted by Rei's presence—and her miraculous ability to walk—to have paid attention to him when he arrived. "So what are _we_ supposed to do?"

"Leave," Jou said.

"But we want to help in whatever way we can," Jun protested. "It's not fair that you're ordering us around. We're older than all of you."

"I'm not," Rei said with a sigh. "And I can't even walk anymore, so I'm not going to be any use to anybody."

I winced.

She was probably devastated. She'd been taunted by Fanglongmon's fused worlds so cruelly, only to have her legs ripped out from under her. I was devastated too. She'd had such a happy smile, one that put all of her past ones to shame. I now knew what she looked like when she felt true joy, and I had to watch as our actions took her dream away. I couldn't see how she'd still want to be my friend after this.

"There are loads of well known people that help do so much good that aren't able to walk," I told her. Just as I'd told her during her very few 'down' days.

"All of your examples are comic book characters," she said with a small smile.

"Awesome comic book _heroes_," I corrected with a grin.

"You two are adorable," Sora just _had_ to say, interrupting our friend moment. "But I'm going to have to be the stick in the mud—again I might add—and tell you that love is going to have to wait."

"Love?" I spluttered.

"Don't be silly," Rei said. "My brother would _never_ approve."

She said it jokingly, but I had to wonder just what was wrong with me? Her brother was a moron anyway, if he couldn't see the sheer brilliance that was Taichi Yagami. But whatever.

"You want to help?" Willis asked.

"Yes," Shuu said eagerly.

"Michael is fighting two separate armies as we speak," Willis said.

"He's only got a small team of his own too," Hikari said, catching on right away.

"I'll be useless though," Rei reminded them.

"But you'll be safer," I pointed out.

"And they could use help with strategy," Koushiro added. "Tatum's all they've got, and she's never fought in a battle like this."

"Protect the baby," Jou said putting his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Please?"

"What baby?" Shuu asked.

"Of course we'll keep a baby safe," Jun said before Jou could explain. "No matter what."

"Thank you," Jou said.

"You say they're south of here?" Mrs Ichijouji asked.

"Yes," I said. "And you don't have to be a digimon to attack them. They'll expect it less if you do it yourself actually."

"Alright," Shuu said. "You ready to fight for something Meramon?"

"Something else, you mean," Rei said with a laugh.

"Yeah, something of a lesser calibre," Shuu said.

I'd have to ask them at some point what they meant, but I didn't have time for that then, because I'd chosen that moment to look at Dragomon.

"He knows we're here," I said quickly. "You need to get out while you still can. "Shuu, Mrs Ichijouji, Jun, good luck, and keep Rei alive, please?"

"We will," Mrs Ichijouji promised. "She's helped us, me, a lot these last few days. I'll do anything I can for her."

I was able to relax briefly, before turning on the part of my brain that was wired for battling.

"Time to digivolve. We want to take him on as many sides as we can, he's not going to be expecting such a strong wave right off. It's not our style. We always come in head on blasting with whatever we've got. We need more than that now. He also doesn't know just how much power he's lost during the separation of the worlds. He's as blind to his potential as we are. Let's keep it that way."

There were general sounds of agreement. Hikari, Willis, Mimi, Jou and I pulled out our digivices.

"**Angewomon digivolve to…Ophanimon!**"

"**Rapidmon digivolve to… MegaGargomon!**"

"**Palmon digivolve to… Togemon!**"

"**Antylamon digivolve to… Cherubimon!**"

"**Togemon digivolve to… Lilymon!**"

"**Ikkakumon digivolve to… Zudamon!**"

"**Lilymon digivolve to… Rosemon!**"

"**Zudamon digivolve to… Plesiomon!**"

"**MetalGreymon digivolve to… WarGreymon!**"

"Go," I ordered our visitors. Rei locked eyes with me before nodding. She must've seen something to assure her that I'd be coming back. I'd hold her to the same promise. I'd never survive school without her; she was one of my best friends.

Shuu scooped Rei out of my arms, and looked to his small ensemble.

"Is my brother safe?" Jun asked by way of parting.

"As far as I know," I swore.

"Be safe," she said, accepting it. "All of you."

"You too," Hikari told her.

And they left.

"He's just watching us," Mimi said nervously.

"He's already confused," Jou said with just the tiniest sliver of optimism.

"Or he thinks we're wasting our time," Willis pointed out.

"Three," I said, taking a deep breath.

"Two," Hikari continued for me.

"One," Sora and Koushiro chorused.

"Attack!" I shouted as loudly as I could. WarGreymon grabbed the fist I'd thrown in the air, pulling me up with him as he flew towards the enemy. I didn't look back, I couldn't afford to. Rosemon and Mimi flew past us, planning to take the direct route, while Plesiomon and Jou took to a curved flight, aiming to come from behind. Sora and Koushiro were above us with Eaglemon, and Ophanimon and Hikari were coming by my side, ready to take his right side, while Willis, MegaGargomon and Cherubimon took the left.

I allowed myself a smirk when Dragomon's eyes widened, taking in our attack force.

"You have yet to win," he said in a booming, loud voice.

"Neither have you," I growled.

"You forget your place," he told me. "And you forget mine."

"Leader of the Dark Ocean," I heard Willis call. "We didn't forget."

"Master of Shadows," Hikari gasped.

"Ah, so you _have_ heard of me," Dragomon said happily, raising his tentacle hands to the sky. "Come to me, do your master's bidding!"

The ground seemed to be moving, but at a closer look, I realized it was the shadows. He'd called them out of Michael's battle. Good news for them, bad for us.

"You think those little tiny shadows are going to be a match for us when you yourself realized you were not?" Mimi asked.

"Look again," Dragomon told her. "_Are_ they so little?"

"Not good," Jou cried.

I prayed to whoever would listen that things weren't going where I thought they were, but they didn't hear me in time. I watched in horror as the shadows melded together, forming just four separate creatures. They were colossal. They weren't just shadow people anymore, they were shadow giants. They'd take a hell of a lot more than a baseball bat to destroy.

"New plan," I called out. "Teams of two, take out those things!"

I watched as Eaglemon took Sora and Koushiro to the nearest shadow giant, preparing for their battle, and saw the twin mega digimon take Willis for the next one. Mimi and Jou would be a pair I knew, so I looked to my sister who nodded at me. We'd take the fourth. And once we got rid of them, we'd be able to win this thing once and for all!

_**Kurayami:**_

I had figured we would have chosen flight rather than going by foot but everyone had seemed to unanimously choose to clamber on over to Vikemon. Everyone other than Daisuke of course who had taken to sitting on the shoulder of his own digital partner, Ulforceveedramon. But it didn't matter how we chose to get there, we would catch up soon. Fanglongmon was a slow flyer, and Vikemon had rather long legs. But Fanglongmon would see us either way. He would see us through me... through my mind. There used to be a wall, a barrier keeping him from the only pure parts left in my mind, but he knew there was nothing left of me—he knew all there was to know, and he could simply, and easily break me down... I could only hope that I wouldn't be a problem to the others because of this.

I was enjoying my time without Fanglongmon in my mind though. I had long since taken off that dirty thick cloak that I seemed to wear while under his control—did he really think that convincing me to wear that would make me more menacing? I thought it looked ridiculous. Either way, I had almost forgotten about the key, my digivice and my crest... not that any of them mattered, I didn't understand them... and I had no digital partner like the others. I looked a little sadly toward Aquilamon as he flew next to Vikemon's head and then to Garurumon who was running next to Ulforceveedramon, and then finally to Wormmon and Patamon. The two of them, besides being rather adorable, were the most loyal of the digital partners I'd seen yet... I could only hope that if I were to be ever gifted with a partner, that it would be like them.

And that was when it happened. Just before the world began to shake the skies lit up a bright pink colour.

"What's going on?" Miyako gasped nervously.

"It's okay," Ken said trying to calm her. She ignored him and turned to someone else for a better response.

"I have no clue..." Yamato admitted.

"It's Hikari," Takeru said slowly. I could tell that he wasn't sure whether to be pleased or concerned, but as the smile crept over his face it was clear that he'd made a decision.

"What's she doing?" Patamon asked curiously.

"I have no clue." Takeru admitted.

"And why is the ground shaking?" Patamon asked.

"I... don't know that either." Takeru sighed, "But I know its Hikari." There was no doubt in his mind, and because of it I knew there was no doubt in mine either. He knew her better than I did, but even _I_ knew that the girl could light up, and that there was a strange passion in her to do the right thing—so even if she was hurt, she would at least be serving her heart in the process.

"Should I stop?" Vikemon grumbled.

"No." Iori said flatly, "We have to keep going."

I was staring off into the distance until I heard a slight scream come from Yamato. I looked over quickly to see him staring toward the ground. I looked as well and smiled slowly. The puddles that scattered the ground were draining slowly into invisible holes in the ground, as many of the trees faded slowly and the cracks in the ground rewound themselves into a new looking pavement.

"The w-worlds..." Daisuke said from below us. "They're splitting." I would never have come to the conclusion on my own—well I would have... eventually. But he was right, and as he said it I knew it. Somehow Hikari had managed to split the worlds up... separating them once more—the way they were meant to be.

Suddenly the ground stopped shaking and the pink lights faded just as quickly as they had arrived.

At that, Vikemon stopped walking.

"What are we even fighting for anymore then?" Yamato asked. "If the worlds are safe?"

"They are not safe." I said loudly and clearly, "Fanglongmon is dangerous Mr Ishida, you know that full well having been in his presence. It is not safe for us to even stop to question our motives." Everyone was silent and I figured it was because they were a little scared of me, and I knew why, I was a very serious person—but I could be funny too... "Our motives are to kill Fanglongmon. Does everyone understand me? Do not forget that or you will die." Okay... not so funny really.

"I understand." Yamato said as if her were a child just after a scolding. I felt bad for punishing him—I hadn't meant to, I had just meant to keep him from doing something stupid—trying to save his life.

"It's going to take us forever to get to Fanglongmon..." Takeru groaned, placing his hands up to cover his eyes as he scanned the horizon. "Though it's a lot easier to see him now that the dark ominous clouds are gone..."

"I have an idea!" Miyako said suddenly, clearing her throat, "Cross your fingers guys..." She told us with a wink, "Meiyomon!" She shouted, "Get us to Fanglongmon?" Iori gave her a look, raising his eyebrows. "What?" She asked in defense, "I saw Michael do it, and it worked for hi—AAUUHH!" Miyako suddenly let out a loud scream as pink light surrounded us once more. This time it was the lights from the jester digimon the Digidestined befriended. I had not tried to speak with him yet... having been under the same rule as him three years ago, I was not sure what treatment he would give me. But as I realized that Miyako's plan had worked I knew we were headed straight for Fanglongmon and my entire body tensed up as I tried to close my mind as best as I could.

It didn't take long... soon we were standing at the edge of a very tall building as Fanglongmon flew toward us.

"Digivolve..." I said in a panic. "Everyone... now."

"R-right..." Takeru nodded, pulling out his digivice, followed closely by Miyako, Ken and Yamato.

"**Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!**" With a flash he shifted into an angel, but he wasn't done yet, "**Angemon digivolve to... Magnaangemon!**" he looked to me as if to ask if that would be enough—but this was no simple fight we were pulling ourselves into—this was not the Dark Masters—this was Fanglongmon himself. The God of the Digital World. And so I shook my head. "**Magnaangemon digivolve to... Seraphimon!**"

"**Aquilamon digivolve to... Silphymon!**" The bird landed and shifted into a humanoid form before digivolving once more. "**Silphymon digivolve to... Valkyrimon!**"

"**Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon!**" Wormmon cried as he leapt from Ken's arm and off the side of the building. "**Stingmon digivolve to... Jewelbeemon!** **Jewelbeemon digivolve to... GranKuwakamon!**" And when the digimon came back into view it was a large battle ready black beetle.

"**Garurumon digivolve to... Weregarurumon!** **Weregarurumon digivolve to... Metalgarurumon!**" And then the sixth mega level digimon joined us.

We were as ready as we were ever going to be. I looked slowly back to Fanglongmon—there he was, flying through the sky, his dark eyes seeing straight through me.

_Kura... my dear, what are you doing fighting against me?_

"You let me go." I said flatly, not meaning to utter the words aloud. Everyone looked toward me quickly.

_I did not mean to. Come to me sweet one... Come to me..._

Suddenly there was a hand wrapped around mine. I looked over and smiled to Daisuke who was standing next to me.

"Don't let him in." He said to me. "You don't need him. You have us... you have..." He trailed off before clearing his throat and saying, "Me."

I smiled and held his hand tighter.

_That's enough for you is it?_ Fanglongmon asked me, his voice echoing in my mind, playfully stinging the sides of my head from the inside, _So you don't want the gift I got... just for you?_

"No." I said angrily, "You can take your gift and shove it up your—"

"Who is she talking to?" Miyako asked in a panic, hiding behind Ken and Yamato.

"Fanglongmon." Ken answered her for me. I nodded slowly as I looked from the cement roof of the building to the eyes of Fanglongmon as he grew nearer.

"You have no hold over me..." I told him as confidently as I could, but I could hear the shaking in my voice, "Not anymore..."

Daisuke threw his arm around me, but I didn't look away from the dark soulless eyes from the creature ahead of us. "Now would be a good time to attack." Daisuke suggested to his digimon.

"Don't hold back." I added hastily as each of the digimon swarmed into battle.

"Strike of the Seven Stars!" Seraphimon practically whispered as seven lights circled around him and shot toward the oncoming dragon.

"Dimension Scissors!" Grankuwagamon bellowed as he sliced his claws through the air and sent his attack with Seraphimon's.

"Bazooka Howl!" Vikemon howled along with Metalgarurumon as the latter called out, "Garuru Tomahawk!" and shot a missile straight out of his chest.

"Aurvandil's Arrow!" Valkyrimon shouted, drawing his bow back and shooting out a very deadly looking arrow.

"Ray of Victory!" Ulforceveedramon joined in, sending his attack as well.

Each of the attacks hit at once and exploded all over the beats body. I could feel the tension rising in the others, but I knew it was no use—they weren't powerful enough... we needed something more—something stronger...

"Did we do it...?" Ken asked, but I knew he was only being hopeful.

"No..." Miyako said as Fanglongmon's wings stretched out of the clouds of smoke.

_Kura, you can't honestly want them to destroy me... not after everything I've done for you—and everything I _can_ do for you..._

"Get lost!" I shrieked, falling to my knees and throwing both hands up to cover the sides of my head.

_You don't really want that... you want me back. I can hear it in your heart... you know that if you stay with them you will die—they do not know of the ways in which to destroy me. Only I know._

"Well we'll figure it out!" Daisuke was already on his knees next to me, trying his hardest to comfort me, but it was no use.

_You're really going to stay with them?_

"YES!" I yelled as loud as I could.

Iori was suddenly next to me as well, taking my face in his hands and turning me to look at him. "Kurayami... look at me. Look in my eyes." He was saying, but his voice sounded faint. "Look at me!" he shouted as my eyes began to wander slowly toward Fanglongmon on their own accord. I forced myself to keep looking at him. "Don't let him in. You're not alone. We're all right here with you—even Hikari and the others even though they aren't here. We all trust you! We're all on your side... and we all love you."

I closed my eyes slowly and nodded. Suddenly I threw my eyes open and hugged him. It was strange—I hadn't meant to do it, but I knew it was my own actions... it was no longer Fanglongmon.

Iori awkwardly threw his arms around me as well and hugged me back. Soon I was falling backward, out of his arms and into Daisuke's.

"I've got you." Daisuke said with a grin, helping me to my feet.

"Are you alright?" Miyako asked me, moving closer.

"I'm fine." I nodded, trying to smile, but failing. I guess I just wasn't used to it.

"What are we supposed to do?" Takeru gasped frantically as yet another set of attacks failed to do any real damage.

"Keep attacking!" Yamato growled.

"No!" Miyako growled, "How is that going to help anything? They're not doing any damage! We need a plan or we'll just wear ourselves out..."

Everyone knew she was right, but no one really had a battle strategy in mind... And so, we turned to watch the digimon fire off another set off attacks, but it wasn't us who made the next move.

"Dragon Smash!" Fanglongmon boomed, flicking his tail toward Valkyrimon with such speed that I'd never seen him perform.

Valkyrimon plummeted toward the surface of the building and crashed right through the roof near the other side. Miyako let out a scream as she ran toward her fallen partner. Ken made to follow but quickly turned back to me.

"You've been under his control for so long Kurayami..." Ken said, "You must have picked up something—how do we beat this thing?"

"I..." I said slowly, trying to think, wracking my brain for everything he'd ever told me, and everything I'd ever overheard... but he'd manipulated with my mind so much... I wasn't sure exactly how I was supposed to remember.

"Think!" Ken persisted.

"Lay off..." Daisuke said quietly to his friend.

"It's alright." I said, placing my hand on Daisuke's shoulder. "He is correct. I must think." I closed my eyes to think... to remember... but nothing was coming to me... all I could think of was the strange sound in the back of my mind, like a humming...

_Do you hear that? _Fanglongmon asked me, _Do you hear her?_

_Who...?_ I asked him in my head. _Who is it?_

He didn't answer me as I was awoken by him letting out another attack. "Oukai!"

"What does that do?" Yamato asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders quickly, "I've never seen him fight!" I said frantically as he spread his wings as wide as he could and then flapped them together quickly.

The ground was shaking again as he roared into the sky. I ran to the edge of the building and looked down nervously. I was never one to be afraid of heights—perhaps it wasn't the heights that were scaring me, but what was down on the ground. The ground was falling apart. There was a long thick crack running around the building and through the city.

"He's not even attacking _us_..." Iori said next to me.

"He's attacking the city—the people!" Takeru exclaimed, "We have to stop him before he can hurt anyone!"

"_How?_" Ken practically growled, "We don't have any way of doing that if all of our attacks are useless!" He was right... there had to be a way... from the corner of my eyes I saw Valkyrimon get back up and shoot off into the sky toward Fanglongmon... he was going to fight again.

I closed my eyes, trying to remember once more... it had to be there... he had to be able to be destroyed somehow... Instead of the answers I was looking for I heard the same humming, only this time it was louder.

_Do you recognize her yet?_ Fanglongmon asked me, _You don't want to see her again?_

_Who...? _ I asked him.

_Why... your mother of course._

My heart practically skipped a beat as her face popped up in my mind, humming her little song. Her eyes wide open, the iris' black, like a sea of darkness, her hair pinned back and out of her pale face that was perfect except for something I remembered her calling a beauty mark placed just above her ruby red lips.

_Where is she...?_ I asked him—no, pleaded. _Please... you have to take me to her..._

_You will only see her again if you join me._ I thought of Daisuke... and of Iori, and of Hikari—all of whom were my friends—they were counting me, I couldn't just abandon them... I need to keep fighting—I had been searching for my mother a long time... and although I had no idea where she was at this point, I knew I could keep searching if I had to. _If you don't join me then I will kill her..._

_No..._

_Yes._ He said determined. _I will kill her, and then you'll never have your mother back... not ever._

_Please!_ I begged _You can't do this! You have to spare her life!_

_I will._ He told me flatly, _So long as you join me._

_I can't..._

_You can._

I opened my eyes and looked toward Daisuke who was watching me nervously.

"You okay?" Daisuke asked me, reaching out and taking my hand. I nodded with a smile before I let it fall.

"No." I told him, "I'm so sorry Daisuke... I love you." I closed my eyes again as he tightened his grip on my hand. I could hear him talking, trying to get to me, but I couldn't hear him... his voice was faint in comparison to Fanglongmon.

_Are you to join me?_

_Yes..._ I told him. _I will join you again..._

_Oh, it's much more difficult this time._ Fanglongmon said, drawing out the words in my head, _This time you won't get free will... and to assure that—your mind will be corrupt... and cease to exist—you will have to become... me._

Before I could open my eyes—before I could change my mind... I no longer had a mind of my own.

_**Hikari:**_

It was practically impossible to win at this point and I knew it. What I didn't know was what exactly was how we were going to pull through—though we always did. But at this point these massive shadows were far too powerful for just two mega level digimon to handle on their own, and adding Dragomon to the equation made things only more unlikely for a Digidestined win.

But I knew this wasn't a game, I couldn't be gambling wagers or trying to figure out who was going to win—it wasn't as simple as that. But for now, the shadows were being kept at bay—though I thought about leaving Taichi to help Willis or Jou and Mimi fight, simply because I thought that we might be able to win and then form a stronger and bigger team to take out the shadows, but I knew if I left Taichi alone then he would lose instantly and die.

And I was _not _willing to let that happen to him.

"Terra Force!" Wargreymon shouted out to the skies as he lifted his hand and fired a large blast of fire toward the weird blob shaped shadow in front of us. The ball of fire shot right through the center of the creature, causing it to melt under the force of the blast—but, just as it had before, the shadow repaired itself, letting the shadows melt back together.

"Eden's Javelin!" Ophanimon called out, pointing her staff toward the beast, shifting me in her arms as she did so, shining a large blast of light toward the demons—but it did nothing more than Wargreymon had. Light wasn't going to be enough this time...

"Ophanimon!" Wargreymon shouted, "Move!"

Ophanimon shot upward immediately before I had time to examine the situation. Just underneath us, Dragomon's tentacle wiggled its way through the air toward Wargreymon, wrapping itself around him and Taichi in the process.

Ophanimon wound up her arm and threw the javelin down toward the tentacle. In order to avoid getting hit, the tentacle released Taichi and Wargreymon and returned to its rightful place on the ground.

I watched as Dragomon glared toward me, and then turned to the others where I saw Eaglemon letting Sora and Koushiro get off of his back.

"Maybe they have the right idea Taichi," Wargreymon suggested, seeing them as well. "It's not safe in here."

"I'm staying." Taichi said. "Take Hikari down Ophanimon, but there is no way I'm leaving this battle—I'm going to see things through."

I tried to roll my eyes at him—trying desperately to keep me safe again, but before I could I spotted his digivice light up a brilliant orange colour. Taichi reached down and pulled it out of his pocket before looking up to the beast and pointing his digivice directly toward it. The light hit the creature head on and forced the creature to start glowing brightly.

"Now Wargreymon!" Taichi ordered quickly.

"Terra Force!" Wargreymon shouted, winding his hands back and firing toward the beast. When his attack hit the shadow it froze for a moment as the ball of flame slowly dented his forehead and pressed into his skull, and then suddenly, it shattered into a million pieces.

The bits of shadow fell slowly toward the ground and faded into nothingness.

Taichi looked to me with a grin, "Looks like the light might just win this after all." He shot a wink to me and then let his face fall, "Kay, Ophanimon, take her down though."

I rolled my eyes as Ophanimon obeyed my brother and floated down toward the ground. She landed with a strange amount of grace on the paved surface of the parking lot just far enough away from Dragomon to keep me safe. I had to admit, I felt relieved to be safe—but I still had a pang in my stomach as I watched the others fight the battle that I should be fighting alongside them. I hated always being brushed to the sidelines—I was eighteen years old! I was old enough to make decisions on my own and I didn't need Taichi to do that for me anymore.

The sky and the air around me were so dark and I could barely see anything anymore—just the occasional ball of fire or lightning as we attacked the mostly invisible shadows.

I soon found myself tapping my feet impatiently as I watched the battle. It wasn't that I wanted it to be over—which I did—I just couldn't wait any longer to find out the fate of my friends. I looked over my shoulder slowly, feeling someone watching me. But when I turned I noticed that there was no one there. I turned back to the battle and found myself screaming loudly.

One of the more human shaped giant shadows had found its way toward me by melting and traveling through the endless shadows around us in the cold night. It was strange, looking at him—I knew he was there, but I could hardly see him, and he made no noise as he was nothing but a shadow, and his body was odourless... was he there?

I discovered that he was indeed there as he swung his balled up fist down to the ground near me, missing my by only a few feet. I started running instantly—I couldn't let anyone save me! I had to prove to them all that I was a grown woman and could handle myself perfectly.

But I was out of energy pretty quickly... all this action and adventure had really worn me out, and my running was slowing—but I couldn't let it! I pushed harder and stretched my legs longer as I ran across the hard ground. I glanced over my shoulder and for a moment was convinced that he'd stopped chasing me, only to focus harder and see the outline of the giant shape.

Soon my wrist was grabbed tightly and I was ripped through the air. I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for the worse, but it didn't feel right. The grip wasn't cold and lifeless like I knew the shadows skin was, but rather warm and soft to the touch. I threw my eyes open and saw that it was Willis who had saved me, flying on Cherubimon's arm. I smiled at him as he winked to me and pulled me up into the rough, furry hand of his digimon.

"Need a hand?" He asked with a grin.

"Thanks," I said with a forced smile. Willis elbowed Cherubimon lightly and motioned over to the trees. I looked back to the shadow and saw that Megagargomon was doing all he could to keep it at bay a Cherubimon slowed her flying and lowered her hand to let us off. Willis jumped off and held his hand out to help me off of the digimon, but I ignored it and jumped off on my own. "Thanks Cherubimon!" I called up to her before she hurried to help her twin fight.

Willis stepped toward me and tried to take my hand but I pulled it away quickly before turning away from him to watch the fight once more. I heard him sigh and take a few steps to the right. "You alright?" He asked me slowly, his voice clearly frustrated.

"Do I look like I've been hurt?" I asked him coldly.

"That's not what I meant." He said simply. I turned toward him, and noticed that his hands were in his pockets as he looked up to the moon with a thick batch of tall trees set as his background.

I stepped toward him and shook my head, but he was still looking at the moon so I said, "No, I'm not." He nodded in understanding, as if asking me to continue. "I'm sick of people trying to protect me like I'm a fragile porcelain doll—because I'm not."

"That's not why I'm trying to protect you Hikari..." Willis said slowly, finally tearing his eyes away from the moon to look toward me, "I protect you because I want you to know that I'm always going to be there for you... because I love you. And because I can't imagine what my life would be like if you... died."

I felt a mixed sense of relief and guilt wash over me as his eyes practically sparkled in the moonlight with the honest gaze he was giving me. He brushed his hair out of his face, running his fingers through his hair and then looked away from me toward the moon once more. "You keep doing that." He said slowly.

"Doing what?" I asked him slowly.

"I keep telling you that I love you, and you keep falling silent."

"Now really isn't the time to be arguing about love," I told him, staring toward the ground, "And I just don't really know—"

"You don't have to answer me." He said, cutting me off, "I just want you to think about it. If you don't love me... I want to know."

"I just don't really know what to think." I said, finishing my sentence anyway, shaking my head and moving forward to take his hand. "And not because of you. But because we're in the middle of a battle that we're very unlikely to win..."

"Oh we'll win." He said, turning toward me with a smile, "We always do. It's our destiny to win Hikari—because we're the Digidestined—we're the good guys. If we don't win it would be some sort of tragedy—but that can't happen... it just won't."

"Hikari!" I turned quickly to see Sora flying through the air toward me. Her arms wrapped around me and the two of us fell to the hard pavement, skidding along the ground, the rocks ripping at my arm. Sora rolled off of me quickly and pushed me, so I rolled also, the opposite way as a large dark hand fell from the sky and smashed into the pavement, leaving a large crater.

As I sat up I saw that both Sora and Willis' digivices were glowing and both pointed them directly toward the creature ahead of us. A beam of red light shone as a beam of silver and bronze shone from Willis.

Soon the humanoid shadow lit up brightly and froze, just like the last had.

"Lightning Spear!" Cherubimon sang out loudly from behind the creature.

"Mega Barrage!" Megagargomon joined in. I couldn't see either of them, but I could hear the whooshing sounds as their attacks grew nearer to us, and soon the shadow had been hit dead on and it exploded, showering us with bits of darkness, revealing a very triumphant looking Megagargomon and Cherubimon behind him.

"Since when do our digivices light up when we show our crests?" Willis asked with his eyebrows raised, holding his digivice up in front of him.

"Since we needed them to?" Sora suggested with a shrug.

"Where... did you show love?" I asked Sora slowly.

"Saving you." Sora said as if it were obvious. "You're like a little sister to me Hikari—I love you. I couldn't let anything bad happen to you." I didn't know what to say and before I could even gather control of my body I had hurried toward her and hugged her. "Sorry about your arm..." She said as she hugged me back, both of us on our knees.

I hopped to my feet and looked toward the large cut on my arm, "Don't worry about it." I smiled at her, though it did hurt rather a lot and there were tiny stones stuck to the blood... "It's my first real battle wound—I mean, sure you caused it, but I like it!"

"You got one literally yesterday..." Willis pointed out as I helped Sora to her feet using my good arm.

"Yeah but Gennai stole it," I said with a shrug, "Come on, let's go,"

As if on cue, Eaglemon landed next to us, practically teleporting out of thin air with a heavy gust of wind. Koushiro was once again on his half-partner Eaglemon who lowered his wing for us all to climb onto. Willis and Sora each grabbed one of my hands and pulled me along with them, up the golden slope leading toward Koushiro.

As I sat down next to Koushiro at the neck of the creature I spotted a very angry giant dog made of shadows charging toward us, snapping its large jaw and biting the air.

"You're both very brilliant." Koushiro said to Sora and Willis with a quick nod, "using the light of your digivices to keep the shadows occupied long enough to allow for a simple kill."

"It was our crests." Sora informed him, soaking in his compliments even if her actions _had_ been accidental.

"So this should be easy..." Koushiro said with a light laugh. I couldn't say I'd ever heard him laugh, but I wouldn't hold it to him. We were all so exhausted our judgement was clearly slipping.

"What do you mean?" Willis asked.

"All we have to do is find a way for us all to show our crests. It's a simple plan... especially for me!" Koushiro laughed again as he reached into his pocket to pull out an already glowing digivice. He pointed the device toward the dog as it raced past Dragomon and toward us. The dog stopped running in mid stride, hovering in the air as it began to glow just like the others had.

"Kaiser Phoenix!" Eaglemon shouted sending a wave of fire toward the beast, and allowing it to explode into bits of darkness just as the others had.

We all turned our attention to the very spiky looking shadow monster that Ophanimon, Wargreymon, Plesiomon and Rosemon were fighting now.

"Go Eaglemon." Sora and Koushiro said together. Eaglemon nodded and spread its wings, flying quickly toward the fight, causing the wind around us to pick up and press painfully against my skin. Eaglemon spun around the digimon before firing another "Kaiser Phoenix" toward the enemy and taking his place in the battle between Wargreymon and Plesiomon. Both Mimi and Jou were sitting on Plesiomon's back as he fired a blast of water toward the enemy.

Wargreymon spun quickly, with Taichi in his arms and tossed him toward Eaglemon. He landed roughly behind Sora and Willis who balanced him quickly. He pouted toward Wargreymon for not keeping him in the heat of the battle and then turned to me and asked "Are you alright?"

"She's fine." Willis said before I had a chance to. I smiled at him, and was about to respond to the both of them but was cut off by a very loud grumbling voice.

"This is getting far too carried away."

It was Dragomon. I looked quickly toward him and let my heart have a miniature panic attack as one of his long tentacles shot toward Plesiomon.

"Mimi!" Koushiro shouted loudly as the tip of the tentacle wrapped itself around her and pulled her sharply toward him, dragging her through the air. Mimi was screaming as she flailed her arms and legs quickly.

"Ah, Mimi is it...?" Dragomon asked, "What a lovely name for a Queen."

"I'm not a Queen." Mimi said, her screaming ceasing instantly.

"Ah..." Dragomon murmured, "What a shame... You could be though... you could be my lovely queen Mimi."

Before anything else could happen, a white monster had tackled Dragomon in the head, forcing him to drop Mimi. I hadn't even noticed Plesiomon move, and apparently neither had Dragomon. Jou caught Mimi tightly as Plesiomon flew underneath her.

"I'm happy just being me." Mimi said before sticking her tongue out. With a flash of light, both Mimi and Jou's digivices lit up, and then instinctively pointed them in the direction of the spiky shadow that Ophanimon, Wargreymon and Rosemon were keeping busy. He froze, and with a sharp crack of Rosemon's whip he was nothing—just like the others.

"Where's your army now?" Taichi asked with a grin, spinning around to face Dragomon.

"Don't taunt him." I shot toward him, turning around to crawl between Sora and Willis, pushing them out of the way in the process. "Taichi, don't be arrogant." I was now practically sitting in his lap as I tried to get closer to him. I spun around and sat down next to him before glaring at him. "He's an angry and powerful digimon—don't make him have a bone to pick with you!"

Suddenly Taichi's eyes widened in shock and I instantly knew why. There was suddenly a very tight grip around my waist as I was pulled through the air. Taichi jumped to his feet and ran along Eaglemon's back before he reached as far as he could go, jumping through the air and reaching for me. I reached as far as my arms would go and caught him around the wrist.

"I won't let go." I told him, my eyes watering slightly.

"That would be preferable." Taichi nodded as he gripped my wrist with both of his hands. His weight was pulling painfully against my shoulders, and I wasn't sure if my arms were happy that I was holding onto a fully grown man, but I wasn't going to let that stop me... I couldn't let go of him...

"I've got you Hikari... finally... you're mine." Dragomon let out a loud laugh as he flapped his wings sharply and waved his hand quickly around and caused the world to disappear. I didn't know where I was or what was happening, but the world suddenly became cold and dark—I could hardly see anything as my nose was filled with the stench of rotting... something. My entire body felt like it was being dragged through a very tight tube, and I couldn't find enough air to breathe right, but the whole time Taichi's hands stayed right around my wrist as I kept my promise to him.

Suddenly everything stopped and Dragomon released me with carelessness, dropping me. I couldn't see the ground, but I could only hope that it wasn't far. I landed in a shallow layer of water, the ground underneath the water was squishy and cold, so landing didn't hurt, but the water felt strangely unpleasant on my skin.

Taichi was next to me still, pulling me to my feet as we looked around through the darkness. I couldn't see a thing, but I could still hear Dragomon's deep and heavy breathing not far from us.

"We're here alone finally..." Dragomon said, his voice made it clear that he was smiling. "I've waited so long for this."

"Uh—" Taichi started.

"That's right." I said simply. "Alone." I heard Taichi swallow next to me, and I could only hope he'd keep quiet. "What do you want from me?"

"I've told you before Hikari." He told me, "I want you to be my Queen. I want you to stay with me forever in this land of darkness—the land I was born in." So we were in the Dark Ocean, I noted simply, that was good to know, "I want you to use your pure... self. Your light... I want that. Your light makes you the only one suitable for the job."

"What... job exactly?" I asked him nervously, though I already knew the answer, I was just trying to buy time.

"I want you to rebuild my race with me."

"You want me to have children... with you?" I asked him slowly, my face contorting into one of disgust.

"I will make you." Dragomon said. "You don't have a choice now... you are stuck here with me... forever." He made a strange sound as if he were heaving something heavy and I knew he was swinging his tentacle toward me. I set off at a run, dragging Taichi along with me to avoid getting hit. I heard the loud splash as his tentacle hit the ground where I had just been.

"I can hear you little one." He said, "I hear your breathing—I hear your footsteps in my water... I hear you." His dark, cold, quiet voice was ominous in the darkness. I could see him even less than I had been able to see those shadows previously, and I knew that he couldn't see me any better, so if I could keep quiet...

Taichi took a deep breath, clearly thinking the same as me, but Dragomon had heard him and swung his tentacle toward us. I ducked, diving to the ground, trying to drag Taichi with me, but his hand slipped from mine and was hit by the tentacle. I gasped as he was ripped away from me. I heard him land in the water across the cave.

"Got you now..." Dragomon said with a grin.

"Hikari!" Taichi shouted, "Run!"

"Oh we have company?" Dragomon asked. I heard his tentacle swoosh through the air once more toward Taichi.

With a loud "Oomph!" Taichi was down. He slammed against the cave wall with a crash.

"Taichi!" I called out in a panic—he couldn't be hurt! He was Taichi, he never let that happen—it was my fault, he'd been so caught up in keeping me safe that he'd been hurt. "Taichi!" I called again when he didn't respond, but still he didn't answer me. My heart was beating quickly as I called out once more. "TAICHI!"

Suddenly the entire cave lit up. The walls were revealed to be dark and wet, and by the far wall from me, pulling himself into a sitting position was Taichi. He smiled at me, and I felt relief wash over me as I turned to Dragomon who was screaming as the light poured over him, his skin bubbling and boiling.

"I'll not be done yet!" He bellowed, drawing his arm back and pulling out his Trident, and with a grunt, he threw the golden weapon toward me.

"Ophanimon!" I found myself screaming as I turned away from the blow, clamping my eyes shut.

I heard the loud clang of metal on metal and then the sound of the Trident falling into the water. "You called?" I threw my eyes open to see Ophanimon standing in front of me, her spear out, defensively in front of her. I smiled as she flapped her long angelic wings and soared through the air toward Dragomon and began to fight with him. She swerved quickly and effortlessly between his arms and legs as he swatted at her, his deep blue skin growing paler as the light that was emanating from... somewhere pierced through his pores and burned his skin, forcing it to bubble and blister as his wings began to droop. He opened his mouth and let out a loud scream as he hit Ophanimon out of the sky like a bug.

"Stay out of my way." Dragomon managed to say with his swollen lips. "Hikari is my love... I love her—and she is the saviour—_our _ saviour... the Chosen one..." He was pulling himself painfully through the water toward me. "Stay with me Hikari... you can chose to stay here with me... I will make you happy..."

"Are you joking?" I asked him in shock—though I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "You're vile—you're cruel... you're awful." His skin was almost completely covered in blisters now as his eyes began to gruesomely dry inside their sockets.

"Sefirot Crystal!" Ophanimon called, holding her hands out and allowing ten glowing crystals to appear, floating between them. She flicked her wrist simply and the ten crystals shot toward Dragomon as he fell into a heap on the ground, looking toward me longingly, his eyes turning a deeper red.

"Hikari..." He groaned as the crystals exploded in a flash of blinding light. I threw my hand over my eyes, unable to watch as Dragomon let out a yell full of intense pain as he was ripped to pieces. As soon as his calls faded I opened my eyes slowly and saw that he was gone from the cave. I turned to Ophanimon who floated toward me.

"You did well Hikari," She told me as I hugged her.

"She's right," Taichi added, hurrying toward me, and pushing between Ophanimon and I, throwing his arms around me. "You were amazing Hikari... I'm so sorry I've been... stupid lately. Iori and Takeru were right—you _do _deserve to wear those goggles."

"Thanks Taichi," I said hugging him back, pleased that he finally gave me a chance to do things on my own—giving me the chance to prove to him that, if given a single chance I could destroy giant evil digimon whose intent was to create a family of evil minions with me... I pushed away from him slowly and reached into my pocket, pulling out the long white key. "But Fanglongmon is still out there—and we need to get out there and find him—we should help."

He nodded and stepped back, motioning for me to open the door. "Let's just remember to close that blasted door this time, okay?"

I couldn't resist myself this time, as I let out a laugh.

_**Daisuke:**_

I didn't understand. She loved me. She _loved_ me. Was I in love with her? No. I didn't think so. Not truly. Not yet. I'd thought I was in love with Hikari once before, but it was just a really badly misplaced infatuation. I knew I _could_ have something special with Kurayami, I wanted to try for that, but we weren't quite ready yet. She was so undecided. But she'd said she loved me. Didn't that mean she was ready? I could be ready too then.

But she was apologizing for something.

It was kind of frightening to think about. Fanglongmon was fighting for control of her body, Iori of all people told her just how much we all loved her and valued her, and everything looked like it was going to be alright. But it wasn't, or else she wouldn't have apologized.

I squeezed her hand, trying to tell her everything would be alright, that she didn't need to give in to him, she wasn't alone. But her eyes went blank as she looked at me. She closed her eyes tightly, and turned her face away from me.

"Kurayami?" I asked nervously. "Kurayami can you hear me? Don't let him win, you can't let him win. You love me right? We can work with that, because I like you too, really like you, could even love you in time, but you're going to have to keep him out of your mind for that to work. We have to beat him."

Her eyes opened in a flash, but she wasn't in them anymore. She snarled at me, before ripping her hand out of my own.

"Kurayami," I pleaded.

"Kurayami, the wonderful servant she is, no longer exists here," she said. But it wasn't her at all. It was a male voice, growly and powerful.

"Fanglongmon," Ken gasped, holding Miyako close to him.

"She gave in?" Yamato asked.

"She had no choice," Kurayami—no, _Fanglongmon_—said sounding immensely pleased. "I cannot be denied. Now let's see how you fare in a fight against one of your own."

"You're a coward Fanglongmon!" Takeru shouted to the skies. "You won't even fight your own battles, yet you declare yourself the strongest creature in all of the worlds combined."

"Because I am," Fanglongmon said smugly. "Just watch my might."

I looked from Kurayami to Fanglongmon, floating in the sky. It was hard for me to tell just which one was talking. As it turned out, both would move their mouths as one. It was like he was right. It was as if Kurayami didn't exist at all anymore. She was such a sweet girl when Fanglongmon wasn't mucking around in her mind. It was scary just to see how different he made her be. But to take over her mind so completely that he shoved her out of it. That was going more than one step too far.

"Dragon Smash!"

I watched in horror as Fanglongmon lifted his giant tail, and swung it down fast, with an uncannily precise aim directly towards Takeru.

"Takeru!" Yamato shouted. "Move!"

But he didn't. Takeru was too busy glaring at Fanglongmon to have noticed his tail's movements.

"Stop this!" I screamed. "Kurayami don't let him do this. You can't. You're good. You really are. I like _that_ Kurayami, the strong, helpful, slightly lost girl. Damn it. Don't let him do this, _please_."

"Viking Axe," Vikemon shouted, leaning over Takeru and pushing his large axe in between my friend and Fanglongmon's tail. Takeru seemed to realize the danger then, and thankfully ran out from under the fighting digimon.

"MetalGarurumon," Yamato called. "It's time to do some damage, don't you think?"

"Definitely," MetalGarurumon growled. The metallic wolf ran up to Fanglongmon and Vikemon's struggle, and unleashed an attack of his own. "Grace Cross Freezer!"

"It amuses me to watch you make mistake after mistake," Kuray—Fanglongmon said.

"Mistake?" Ken asked. "How is this a mistake?"

"I am impenetrable," he said through Kurayami.

"Everything's got a weakness," Vikemon said, his voice straining from holding back Fanglongmon's tail. "We just have to exploit it."

"But you'll have to find it first," Fanglongmon said with a sick and twisted laugh. Well, maybe I only thought it was that way because it looked so very out of place on Kurayami. "Go, my warrior."

Kurayami started walking forward, straight at me and for a brief moment, just one second, I thought she might've broken free. I was wrong. It was the opposite. She was going on the offensive.

"Kurayami," I said frantically. "I don't want to fight you. Please don't make me fight you."

"That's what makes this so fun," Fanglongmon practically purred out of Kurayami's mouth. "Now fight me!"

"No," I said jumping out of the way when Kurayami lurched forward, her hand flattened out in a blade shape, ready to slash at me. "Please tell me you don't know martial arts."

"She doesn't," Fanglongmon told me. And I almost relaxed as foolish as that was. "But as I said, Kurayami is no longer in existence. _I_ am."

"Damn it," I said jumping out of the way again, and trying to grab her wrists so she couldn't keep trying to get me. Bad idea. She jumped up, using my grasp as leverage, and kicked me squarely in the chest with both feet. It hurt a boatload.

"Ready to fight yet?" Fanglongmon asked, tilting Kurayami's head to the side.

"I won't fight her," I shouted.

"Ah, yes, you humans are quite foolish. And weak. You won't fight a female," he said. I got the feeling that that fact played a large part of his plan.

"It's dishonourable," Iori said. "But you wouldn't know about honour."

"I know about honour," Fanglongmon said cockily. "I am merely above it."

I let out a surprised yell, as Kurayami's foot collided with the back of my knees, bringing me to the ground.

"One by one, she will stop you," Fanglongmon declared. "Because your honour stops you from fighting back. And once you are gone, your digimon will be worthless. Ants to step on, in my way to ultimate power. Once taken care of, they will never be seen again. You've separated the worlds and now you must pay the price for it. Your digimon will die by my hands and their data will not get recycled. They will cease to exist entirely, and it will be your fault for not following my grand scheme. But you won't have time to mourn them when you're dead!"

Kurayami was moving closer to me, preparing to start the real struggle. I knew I should be doing something, but it was Kurayami, and I couldn't do it.

"There's a flaw in your plan you big loser," Miyako pointed out.

"And what's that?" he asked finding it simply hilarious that she thought she could outsmart him.

"It's only dishonourable for boys," she said running forward and jumping over me, tackling Kurayami to the ground. "For a girl to fight, protecting her friends against another, that is _most_ honourable."

Fanglongmon let out an angry growl, pulling his tail back for a second, before whipping it back down at Vikemon and MetalGarurumon, who were caught entirely off guard, and were knocked to the ground.

"It does not matter," he snarled. "I have unlimited power still."

"Everything has its breaking point," Iori reiterated.

"Not. Me," Fanglongmon declared.

"As amusing as this all is," Takeru said. "We've got to help Miyako somehow…"

"How?" Yamato asked. "She looks like she's got it under control."

I risked a peek over and saw that he was right. No matter what Fanglongmon threw at her, Miyako managed to either deflect it or get out of the way in time. She wasn't exactly the best fighter I'd ever seen, but she wasn't doing too badly.

The only downside being that she was beating up on Kurayami…who _would_ come back to her senses, she had to, and be covered in bruises or something when she did.

"Let's focus on beating Fanglongmon," Ken said. "It's going to take all of our brains, because if there is a weakness, I haven't got close to figuring it out."

"He's got a really hard shell, so maybe if we barrage attack it?" Yamato asked.

"We tried remember? He's not damaged at all," I sighed.

"We'll just have to try again," Takeru announced. "We'll try twice as hard."

Our digimon were as sceptical as I was, but Takeru had a point. We didn't have anything else to try.

"Metal Wolf Snout!" MetalGarurumon shouted. Four missiles sprung from his metal nose, targeting the giant dragon.

"Hallowed Ascension!" Seraphimon added, loosing a bolt of lightning from the sky.

"The Ray of Victory!" UlforceVeedramon called, unleashing a 'V' shaped blast of pure energy from his chest.

"Laser Javelin!" Valkyrimon threw in, tossing a javelin he just summoned at Fanglongmon.

"Viking Axe!" Vikemon screamed, throwing his axe at the enemy this time.

"Dimension Scissors!" GranKuwagamon said, finishing the volley.

"It tickles," Fanglongmon said dryly. "You thought an attempt as pitiful as _that_ could beat me?"

"Give up!" Miyako shouted to Kurayami—no, Fanglongmon, sitting on her stomach as she pinned her to the ground.

"Never," Fanglongmon snarled through her mouth.

"Snap out of it then," Miyako called desperately. Kurayami shook her head, rolling the two over, so she was on the top this time.

"Say goodbye to your little friends," Fanglongmon told her.

"Kurayami no!" I shouted running over as fast as I could. I couldn't let Fanglongmon kill Miyako. That wasn't a possibility for me. But I couldn't let Fanglongmon make Kurayami do it either. When she snapped out of it she'd be more than just distraught.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her off of Miyako.

"Let go of me you worthless piece of trash," Fanglongmon said to me. But I didn't let go.

"Kurayami, I _know_ you're in there. We need your help now. Please, listen to me," I pleaded. "As much as I'd like to say I can do this on my own, I can't. You need to help me. Please help me."

"She cannot hear your pathetic mewling," Fanglongmon snarled.

"Please," I begged, looking frantically through her eyes, trying to find her within them, but found nothing. I need to find something, _anything_ that would bring her back to us, and away from that monster. But nothing was coming to mind.

Something Koushiro said flashed through my thoughts.

"_I was thinking a simple kiss," he said. "A simple kiss would show the love and break the darkness."_

Would it work? I didn't know. But Koushiro said it, so it must have some legitimacy to it.

"Kurayami, I care about you," I told her, though she didn't know what I was saying. She couldn't hear me. "And I want you to be safe."

And then I took her face into my hands and pulled her in for a kiss. It was awkward as hell, since she wasn't really in her body and I felt like I was forcing this on her, but I did care about her, a _lot_ and I'd wanted to show her for awhile. It seemed like the right moment. Especially if it would save her from the darkness.

I didn't pull away until I felt something wet. A tear. I had to stop kissing her to see what was wrong. She was crying, but it was definitely _her_ doing it. I couldn't stop myself from planting another, shorter kiss to her lips in my excitement.

"You're back," I cried.

She took in a shaky breath, and she started trembling. "He's got her. My mother. He's got my mother."

"Joining him won't get her back," I whispered. "He'd just hold it over you forever."

"I know," she sobbed. "But I had to do _something_."

"We will," I said. "We're going to beat him. And then everyone will be safe."

"He's impenetrable," she told me. "He's very proud of that."

"We noticed," I said sadly.

"But only on the outside," she continued. "It's only a shell. You have to fight from the inside out."

"How do you know this?" I asked hesitantly.

"Because I became him," she said still crying. She slipped down to the ground, covering her face with her hair, so I couldn't see her. "He was inside of me and I was inside of him. I know his weakness. And he can't handle anything from the inside attacking him. I wasn't strong enough to attack him, and it's not his mind that can be beat. It's his physical body…just from the inside. Does that make sense?"

"Totally," Miyako said from behind me.

"Here," Yamato said, holding his hand out for Kurayami. She looked up at him in confusion.

"Why?" she wanted to know. "I betrayed you all."

"But we'll forgive you," Iori said begrudgingly. "Because you're one of us."

"But—" she said.

"What are friends for?" Yamato asked her. She shook her head but I caught sight of a small smile.

"I'll look after her," Ken said, motioning to Kurayami. "We need our leader to…well, lead us."

"You going to be okay?" I asked Kurayami.

"Because of you, I will be," she said taking Ken's hand.

"Okay," I said louder. "We're going for a different tactic now. He can't be blasted through, but if we put our minds together, we'll come up with something that just might work."

"What do all lizards need?" Yamato asked with a bright smile.

"A heat lamp?" Takeru suggested.

"Because their cold blooded," Yamato continued. "MetalGarurumon, it's time to take out the heat!"

"I'm on it!" MetalGarurumon called. "Metal Wolf Claw!"

The large metal wolf jumped through the air at Fanglongmon.

"You think your attacks will work any better a third time?" Fanglongmon scoffed.

MetalGarurumon slashed at his skin, breathing cold air at him. It must have been really cold too, because a thin layer of ice started to spread over half of Fanglongmon's body.

"Why don't I give it a try?" Vikemon suggested, launching himself into the air. "Arctic Blizzard!"

Even though there was a good amount of distance between us, I could still feel the cold temperatures Vikemon was giving off. Fanglongmon sure felt it too, because a thicker layer of ice engulfed his whole body. Vikemon then swung his hammer down onto the frozen lizard, leaving the ice to shatter into a sort of blizzard. Fanglongmon's body flew high into the air above. He was trying to get control of his flight, but his body was far too cold to do so quickly.

"We need to attack his insides," I announced.

"I've got just the thing," Valkyrimon said. "Try a bit of my Feral Sword!"

He flew at Fanglongmon's falling body and slashed right through his skin as though it didn't exist—leaving no marks to prove it happened either. Fanglongmon let out a strangled gasp.

"Let's see how he handles his organs taking a strike," Miyako said with a happy smile.

"Want to know a fun science fact?" Takeru asked.

"Sure," Seraphimon said.

"Did you know that when you put a cold glass into boiling temperatures it cracks?" he said with a smirk.

"I don't know…" Seraphimon decided. "We'll have to test that theory to be sure, won't we?"

"Be my guest," I said.

"Strike of the Seven Stars!" Seraphimon shouted, raising his hand into the sky, and allowing what looked to be seven super-heated spheres of sacred light gather around it. He flung them towards Fanglongmon in one graceful movement.

I watched as the spheres hit Fanglongmon's ice-cold skin. Each point of contact cracked under the heat, spreading a little, leaving behind seven new weak spots.

"Why don't we take a turn, GranKuwagamon?" Ken suggested.

"It would be my pleasure," GranKuwagamon growled, launching himself forward as he shouted out. "Dimension Scissors!" GrangKuwagamon snapped his pincers closed, and Fanglongmon let out a strangled yell.

"So much for being impenetrable," I said.

"I will not lose," Fanglongmon assured me. "I am perfection."

"Well, it seems perfection has a lot of flaws," I decided. "UlforceVeedramon, let's take this sucker down!"

"Dragon Impulse X!" my partner shouted. His body was covered in the flaming aura of a dragon—which I thought was plenty fitting—and flew towards Fanglongmon. He targeted GranKuwagamon's bite, and flew right through the skin and into Fanglongmon. I stared in a mix of horror and revulsion, before UlforceVeedramon came out at the other side in one piece.

I watched Fanglongmon, hoping that it was enough. I mean, my digimon just tore right through him, how could he survive that?

We all held our breaths, as Fanglongmon tried to fly, to stop his descent, and were able to breathe again when he fell back to the earth, slowly dissipating into ash. He couldn't become data, not here, not on earth. He spun in circles, and his wings started rotting through, leaving holes as though moths had chewed through them.

"Yes!" Miyako shrieked, jumping up and down and kissing Ken sloppily on the corner of his mouth, leaving him both stunned and happy.

Kurayami burst into happy tears and ran at me, tackling me into a hug. She was just as happy as I felt.

Takeru and Yamato were hugging each other as well. When they noticed Iori just staring happily at Fanglongmon, they pulled him into their hug as well.

It was over!

We did it. He was gone.

_**Kanashimi Higorashi:**_

I sat alone in the darkness.

There wasn't much more in the world... it was all darkness now. Every last bit of it. I lazily rested my head in my ratted hair against the damp cave wall, my eyes shut tight. It didn't matter whether my eyes were open anymore... there was no light... no light existed. All that was left was the dark cave in which I sat, listening to the sound of the water dripping from the stalactites on the ceiling, landing in puddles of the dark water. The water that I sat in now.

I could feel the water eating away at my feet as they rested in the water—just as I could feel the cold, crisp air prick at my fingertips as they hung loose, as my wrists rested upon my knees. I could smell the sea... I knew I was close... if only I could find it... I could practically taste the salty waters that I used to play in—the waters I felt so close to... they were so close... and if I listened hard enough I knew I could hear the waves—but perhaps that was just my imagination—my longing... my want for something I knew I could never have again.

_Let me in..._

It was that voice again... the voice that had been bothering me before—the one that had wanted my body as a vessel so long ago. I could remember the deep grumbling voice—I remembered it well...

_Let me in this time... let me in!_

And why... wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I let it in? There was nothing left for me... perhaps the omnipresent darkness would find a better use of me...

_Let me in..._

"Okay..." My dry, coarse voice said to the darkness, "Okay... I will let you in."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 04: ** The final chapter is next, and that means everyone will get a say. It's time to wrap up everything!


	50. Loose Ends

**Y/N:** Wow. It's been a long and winding ride throughout Digimon Adventure 04, and I'd like to thank each and every one of you for riding it with us. I hope you enjoy the finale we've assembled. I'm not going to lie. It's the longest thing we've ever done, but a lot needed to be accomplished. Let us know what you think of some of the twists in a review, and be sure to stay tuned after the story for a brief comment about future one-shots. :)

**U/N:** I haven't actually read Tai's or Iori's but a lot certainly happens in this chapter-and we had so much to wrap up and throw in there, you're welcome :P The chapter has ups and downs and everyone has a part-and the only one i didn't enjoy doing was Willis'-and Hikari's. And you can tell... Sorry about that. But otherwise i hope you like it... you should know that despite the fact that we've been trying to get in line with the epilogue as much as possible-there are things that are too off the wall to put in... and things that just didn't work with the story. Soooooo I hope you like the finale of Digimon Adventure 04... and review and tell us what you thought and... yeah... thanks :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 04**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 5: United Front**

**Chapter 50: Loose Ends**

_**Michael:**_

My confusion started at the beginning—not long after the others had left. The world shook, and lit up a bright pink colour... what did that mean? I soon found out when the shadows began to scream in pain, and the dampness of the air dispersed, and I was able to breathe clearly again. It was like the world had been lifted off of my shoulders, and I felt like I could fly! And soon our surroundings turned more and more lifelike as some of the trees and things began to fade away. I had my strong suspicions of what was going on, but it wasn't until Tatum muttered "The worlds are parallel again," that I had really taken to what had happened.

After the worlds had finished doing their little jig the shadows left—presumably they were weakened... or perhaps they were going to go help Dragomon, I could only hope that didn't mean too much trouble for the others. Meiyomon sent a pillar of pink light off toward Fanglongmon, but I couldn't be sure why—and I didn't want to think too much about it for my own sanity. But once the shadows had gone from the battle everything had become significantly easier. Meiyomon's army of digimon that he had accumulated was easily beating the other digimon with swift movements.

"NO!" Tatum called loudly, hurrying forward. "Everyone stop! Don't harm them!"

There was a quick and loud swish of the wind as a pillar of pink shot in front of us and Meiyomon appeared once again. "And why not?"

"If you kill them they'll die—forever!" Tatum said hurriedly, "The worlds aren't One mumbled mess anymore—If you kill them... you're a murderer." She was going a little overkill—a tad dramatic, but I wouldn't have her any other way. I looked into my arms at the sound of a small hiccup to see a set of big red eyes looking up at me with a smile. I smiled back down to my partner. I wasn't sad anymore—I supposed it was because there was no reason _to_ be sad. He was in my arms again... I still wasn't sure if I was totally unaffected by the experience, but he was back already, and hiccupping adorably, so what could there possibly _be_ to be sad about?

"Then what do you suggest we do, oh wise one?" Noriko asked with a snide scowl. I shot a look of equal disgust back her way which shut her up.

"We need to get them back to the digital world." Tatum said as if it were obvious.

"How?" Natsuni asked—I was confused why she didn't know, but soon realized she hadn't been around digimon long enough to really know.

"We need a computer...?" Momoe guessed, adjusting the child in her arms as it slept soundly. To be an innocent child—sleeping through all of this danger... the girl was lucky if you asked me. I nodded to her and she smiled. "Jou has one! A laptop. Meiyomon, take me to his house!"

"Please...?" Meiyomon prodded Momoe with his finger and Momoe rolled her eyes as she gently placed her child into Natsuni's arms.

"Please." She shot quickly before turning back to Natsuni. "Be careful—hold her head... Don't drop her and—" Before she could finish her statement she was whisked off of her feet with Meiyomon in his pink lights.

"Let me hold her." Noriko growled to Natsuni as Tatum turned to the battle to make sure no one was killed in the battle. She was really admirable—looking out for even those who were out to get her—to destroy her in fact.

"No." Natsuni said simply as she walked slowly toward the bus that was still parked atop the hill. She leaned against the bus and slid into a sitting position. "Momoe gave her to me."

"But she liked me better!" Noriko said, rolling her eyes, "Obviously. She even gave me advice to hook up with Iori, and it worked. He asked me out. Now who does he hate?" Noriko was speaking in a very irritating voice as she rubbed her new boyfriend in Natsuni's face. "He loves me—not you! ME!"

"Michael can you hold this baby while I slap her?" Natsuni asked simply.

Before I could respond her digimon stepped in and placed his large green hand on her shoulder. "Natsuni—violence is not the answer." Goblimon said with a slow shake of his head. "Turn the other cheek."

"Right." Natsuni said with a nod.

"Noriko, maybe you could calm dow—" Impmon tried as he placed his hands on Noriko's arm, but she was quick to shake him off as she began to dance.

"I win! I win! I really, really win!" She sang, "I got Iori—and Natusni didn't! Why? Because he loves me! He loves and he doesn't love you!" She stopped singing and turned her head sharply toward the other girl, "I guess your sudden surprise attack kiss didn't work out in your favour after all did it?"

Natsuni looked down to the baby and tried to ignore Noriko as she spun in circles. The child began to burst into tears as Impmon apologized to Natsuni about his partner's behaviour.

I tried to turn away from Noriko as she acted like a complete fool but she was just asking for attention and I couldn't help but give it to her. She was the most annoying creature I'd ever seen in my life. I wanted to talk to Iori—tell him what exactly was going on here, and how he totally picked the wrong girl, but it wasn't up to me. I wasn't even Iori's friend—he hated me. I wasn't sure why—I figured it was because I sent out this rather... childish... persona while speaking. It wasn't intentional—but even so, I really hoped that everything would work out with him and Noriko... so long as she calmed down.

Suddenly Momoe was back with a slick black laptop in her arms and Meiyomon standing behind her with a smile. The moment they had landed Noriko stopped her dancing and singing.

"Are we going to do this then?" Meiyomon asked.

"Yup." Momoe asked, flinging the computer open dramatically. We waited in silence as nothing happened.

"You need to open the digi port." I said, speaking in the first time in a while. "Here..." I said, reaching up and setting Zurumon on my head. He gasped dramatically as I brought him up to sit there, and I couldn't help but smile—he was just so freaking cute... I reached out and began opening a search engine on Jou's laptop. I typed away and quickly found the portal and stepped back. "Now, we have to get down there." I looked toward the armies who were still battling. "Mieymon?" I asked him, gently taking the laptop from Momoe as she motioned for me to take it. "Please." I added quickly before he could insist upon it.

Instantly I was engulfed in a pink light and shooting down the hill. As I passed Tatum I reached my hand out and grabbed her tightly, pulling her into the light with me. We were at the bottom of the hill in a few seconds and we landed softly.

"I never should have let you guys know I could do that." Meiyomon sighed, "You're all going to get super lazy..."

I laughed at him as Tatum ran into the battle carelessly and called up to Airdramon to retreat. Her digimon partner glowed for a moment and then reverted to Monodromon before falling from the sky. Tatum caught him in her open arms before running back toward Meiyomon and I. "That was entirely reckless." I told her, "Don't get yourself hurt..."

"I promise I won't." She smiled at me before setting her digimon back and pulling out her digivice. "Ready?" She asked me.

"I'm ready." I smiled.

"Go!" Meiyomon exclaimed excitedly clapping his hands. Tatum shone her digivice toward the computer that lit up immediately and surrounded the digimon, engulfing them in a bright white light. "Thanks for all your help!" Meiyomon shouted to them on their way through, "Sorry you couldn't stay longer! And STOP THE VIOLENCE!" He bellowed as the last few digimon fell through. I smiled and closed the laptop. Assuming Fanglongmon was using his entire remaining army, then the world should have... been safe. From them anyway—Fanglongmon and Dragomon were still out there.

"We missed some!" Tatum pointed out, extending her pale arm toward a pile of black fluff.

"Your siblings." I told Meiyomon who smiled excitedly and turned toward them, before setting off at a run, jumping into the air and clicking his heels.

"You were fighting this whole time?" He asked.

"Yeah!" They chorused, all smiling up at him.

"You're all—" Meiyomon froze. "I have... to go." He said. "I'll be right back."

I nodded at him, but before I could say anything he was gone, spinning into his pink light. I looked down at the army of his siblings and smiled. "Come on," I said to them, "Let's walk up the hill together."

And so we did. They were all talking excitedly about the battle the whole way up—though I had a feeling some of their stories were a little fabricated... "I was so scared, but then I remembered—I'm awesome—so I BIT his head off!" or, "I was so quick and was jumping on their heads, giving them all major migranes!" and my favourite "I killed ALL the badguys!"

Tatum and I walked, hand in hand with Monodromon next to us, and Zurumon still on my head, laughing at them the whole way. But the moment we had reached the top there was a strong gust of wind, and Zurumon let out another gasp before jumping off of my head and to my shoulder and then into my arms. I held him tightly as I looked overhead, the wind blowing like crazy, messing up my hair.

"Eaglemon!" Tatum shouted excitedly, setting off at a run toward the bus where Momoe was standing, holding her baby once more as Noriko hung over her shoulder. There were also four other people this time, and a Meramon. I didn't recognize any of them... I didn't see Natsuni at first, but then I spotted her laying on top of the bus with Impmon and Goblimon sitting silently on either side of her. Monzaemon was leaning against the back of the truck, sitting down and relaxing—having not been in the initial battle. I ran after Tatum, the balls of fluff bouncing eagerly behind me.

It wasn't long before Eaglemon had landed, the wind stopping abruptly as the creature began to glow brightly before shrinking very quickly.

Soon, where Eaglemon had been there were just two very tiny digimon with seven Heroes standing, holding more digimon, a little larger.

Sora and Koushiro rushed forward to school up a black seed like digimon with a sprout growing from her head and a green blob sporting a pacifier respectively.

There was a moment of silence, each of their faces completely sombre and flat. The tension was building, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could wait to find out the fate of the battle.

"Well...?" Tatum asked slowly and quietly, hoping for the best.

"We won..." Mimi gasped, relieved which sent the rest of us into a frenzy of excitement. They had defeated Dragomon! That meant Fanglongmon was all that was left! Tatum had hurried forward and hugged Mimi tightly, being careful not to squish Tanemon in the process.

Taichi and Hikari both ran instantly toward one of the girls who was in the group of four new people. She was sitting by herself against the side of the bus on the pavement. Both of them sat next to her with smiles on their faces, Salamon and Koromon in their arms. They were talking in whispers—but both were smiling now. Willis joined Tatum and Mimi with Gummymon and Kokomon on his shoulders as Jou and Momoe watched each other from across the celebration, both reluctant to smile. And—much to my surprise Sora and Koushiro had come to me.

"Michael..." Koushiro said, staring toward the ground, looking exhausted. "Your information about the evolution was correct."

"Really?" I asked with a grin—though I knew it had been already. I really wasn't as stupid as everyone let on. Sora elbowed Koushiro, expecting him to continue.

"Really." He assured me. "In fact—if I'd listened to you in the first place, it would have saved a lot of trouble with Ghoulmon..."

"Who?" I asked.

"Long story." Sora explained.

"But I guess if I did listen to you, we'd never have met Eaglemon..." Koushiro smiled down at the blob of green in his arm, his other arm hanging limp.

I nodded, unsure really what I was supposed to say to them, and both smiled at me before turning to leave, but before they left Sora turned back to me and said "I'm really sorry Michael..."

"For...?" I asked her.

"For... what I did to Metalseadramon." She said softly, her eyes watering, "I'm so... so sorry—I didn't mean to—I didn't know—but still... I'm really sorry."

"It's okay." I said with a smile. And when she gave me a quizzical glance I held up Zurumon and smiled, "Really, it's no big deal—I mean—don't do it again... but I forgive you!" She smiled half heartedly before hugging me awkwardly, our digimon being squished in the process. And then she was gone, hurrying after Koushiro.

"I kept this baby safe Jou!" The only male in the new group of people said with a grin, pointing down to Momoe's child, "Even though I just got here..." He laughed a little as Jou came closer to the boy who looked enough like him to be his brother, and Momoe.

"Thank you Shuu," Jou grinned.

"So whose kid is it?" Shuu asked slowly.

"Mine." Jou and Momoe said together, both receiving deadly glares from one another. Shuu on the other hand was having a mini-freak out next to them, his hands flying around in a mix of excitement and confusion.

"I'm an uncle?" Shuu asked—so I was right, he was his brother. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It... it's a long story." Jou said solemnly, staring down into the eyes of his baby girl.

"Does anyone know where Ken is...?" An older woman asked slowly, her hand on her heart.

"And Daisuke?" The next girl, who in _knew_ had to be his sister. Her hair was wild, and she had the same expression he always wore. In her arms was a very happy looking Otamamon.

"I honestly don't know." Sora said apologetically. "We were going to go find them and help them fight—but our digimon ran out of energy."

"We're pooped!" Bukamon yawned, hanging off of Jou's shoulder.

"I want to sleep forever." Tanemon agreed, receiving a laugh from almost everyone around her. I guess we were all just really tired... because I wouldn't have laughed normally—not given the circumstances and the high possibility for our friends failure.

But that was proven false almost instantly when, with a swoosh and a flash of light there was another group of humans standing in front of us, Meiyomon in the center. Iori was smiling up at him before realizing that they'd stopped and he ran instantly for Hikari who was running at him excitedly. I didn't have to wait for them to tell us that they'd won—the triumphant look on all of their faces was enough.

But still, other than Hikari hugging Iori and an excited squeal from both Ken's mother and Daisuke's sister, everyone was silent until with a coarse, airy voice Kurayami let out a soft, "He's dead."

And then I couldn't even keep track of people anymore. Taichi excused himself from his friend for a moment, leaving her with Salamon and Koromon, long enough to hurry toward Yamato and hug him tightly. Hikari was hugging Daisuke before being pushed aside by an excited Jun, of course it wasn't rude—Hikari laughed—so it was okay. Everyone was hugging everyone, and for some reason I just couldn't move. My heart was pounding excitedly—but I couldn't express anything... I was just... happy. My lack of excitement changed of course when a pair of lips met with mine for a moment before pulling away.

"Are you alright?" Tatum asked me slowly. I nodded with a grin.

"Yes." Was all I could say before she took my hand and dragged me into the celebration. It felt wrong to be cheering and screaming in the streets in the middle of the night—especially since I was fairly confident that I was going to pass out soon if I didn't get some sleep—but I couldn't stop... I was just happy!

"I've been looking for you _everywhere!_" I heard Daisuke's sister call out.

"You don't trust that I can survive without you?" Daisuke laughed.

"I just missed you." She responded, receiving another hug from him as he lifted her into the air.

"I'm glad you found the fish." He smiled at her.

"I'm a tadpole!" Otamamon growled angrily.

Daisuke laughed, "I know bud... I know." Then Daisuke stepped aside and motioned toward Kurayami who was trying to pick the remaining twigs out of her hair. "I'd like to introduce you to someone Jun..." I stopped listening then as Hikari let out a loud scream as she almost fell over, but her scream turned to laughter in a moment as Takeru caught her. The two of them stood together laughing as Willis came over and hugged her. Takeru was gone in an instant, hurrying over to Ken and his mother who were awkwardly hugging as Ken tried to escape. Iori was now talking with Miyako excitedly as Noriko tried desperately to gain his attention and Taichi and Yamato had worked their way over to Taichi's friend again. Most of the digimon were bouncing around everyone's feet so I let Zurumon do the same, leaping from my arms. It felt almost... scary to allow him to do that... after what had happened I wasn't sure if I was willing to trust him out on his own—but he was gone now...and I'd have to trust him.

Tatum was suddenly spinning me around and dancing, but I quickly escaped that—I hadn't really mastered the art of freestyle yet, so I left that to Mimi, Sora and Tatum as Koushiro tried to follow suit.

I found myself running into Jou who turned and apologized, as he caught me from falling. "So we're just not sure yet." He was saying to Shuu, Miyako and Iori.

"Not sure about what?" I asked them with a laugh.

"Baby names." Shuu said as Miyako glared at the ground.

"If you don't name her soon, I will." Iori said causing Jou to laugh, "I'm serious." Jou's face fell before he and Iori both started laughing again.

"Iori!" it was Noriko, "There you are!"

"Yeah, hi." Iori said, rolling his eyes—but his eyes were popped open as Noriko spun him around to try and kiss him. "Not here..." he groaned, trying to escape, but she just ran after him. And even though Iori was being chased by a crazy girl, everything was just... happy.

_**Yamato:**_

"Everyone!" Suddenly everything stopped as we all spun around to see Hikari standing on the top of the bus, bearing the goggles still, "I think it's time we go home... We could all use some rest." She was met with a collective sigh of relief.

"I actually need to go to the hospital." Jou pointed out, sticking his hand up.

"Why? Are you hurt?" I asked.

Jou shook his head, "Momoe just had a baby." He pointed out.

"You really don't have to come." Momoe said hurriedly.

"I really do." Jou said flatly.

"I should go too!" Koushiro said abruptly, "I'm kind of in pain..."

"My ribs are broken..." Willis laughed nervously, "And as much as I love Mrs Yagami's bandages—I think I should go for something a little more professional."

"I think I should go too..." Tatum said slowly, clutching her head tightly.

"I'll go with you guys." Mimi and Michael said together causing them both to laugh a little.

I was watching the others, trying to decide who else would be going to the hospital and secretly hoping that it would not be Sora... I didn't want her to go because then I'd have to make up an excuse to go with her. But I didn't want that... I just wanted to talk to her... just for a minute...

"Meiyomon," Iori said, tugging at his brother's sleeve, drawing his attention from his other siblings, "Can you take us all home...? Please..."

"Gladly." Meiyomon grinned. "Since you said please. 'Course I should've expected anything less from my little brother!" Meiyomon wrapped his arm around Iori's neck and laughed. Iori's face turned bright red as he pushed away from him with a muttered "I'm older than you..." Meiyomon waved his hands, and was about to scoop us all up, but he froze. "Where to first?" Meiyomon asked as Michael ran from the group and onto the bus. Meiyomon rolled his eyes as Michael came back holding a separate egg.

"Almost forgot this..." he said, embarrassed.

"I don't even have anywhere to stay." Kurayami spoke up suddenly. "I live in America..."

"You can stay with me!" Daisuke said without thinking, but then he shook his head, "Wait I don't live at home."

"I'm sure it'll be alright." Taichi said with a nod.

"Where are we going?" Meiyomon asked frantically.

"The hospital." Hikari said, leading the way off of the bus for Natsuni, Goblimon and Impmon. The moment all four of them had made it to the ground Meiyomon waved his hands quickly, but Ken shouted suddenly.

"STOP!"

"Are we ever going to go?" Meiyomon muttered to himself.

"What is it dear?" Mrs Ichijouji asked, placing her hand on his shoulder

"I need to talk to Miyako." Ken said loudly. "If she'll let me."

Miyako, who had been silent most of the celebration turned toward Ken and nodded before running toward him, he held out his hand for her to take but she shook her head and walked past him. He nodded and turned to his mom. "I'll be home in like an hour—I promise."

"Oh—but—!" Mrs Ichijouji's words were cut off as we were all finally lifted into the air. If felt relaxing to have gravity pull out beneath me after a long day of fighting and walking and... everything else that had happened. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Taichi picking up Rei—which was smart due to the fact that we'd likely be landing in the Hospital parking lot and she'd land painfully on the cement.

Tsunomon nuzzled in closer to me and smiled up at me. I smiled back to him as we landed smoothly, just as I had thought, in the hospital parking lot.

"First stop!" Meiyomon grinned as all of his little siblings began to giggle—except Iori who was glaring toward Noriko as she hung off of him.

Jou was the first to jump out of the group, followed by Momoe who was following behind with her baby. Mimi, Michael, Willis, Koushiro and Tatum all followed the two of them out all of them holding their digimon. Jou's brother Shuu looked like he wanted desperately to follow, but decided to stay. Monzaemon however took a different route and hurried out of the group to stand with Momoe and the others.

Hikari hurried forward and threw her arms around Willis, "I'll see you tomorrow?" She said quietly and he nodded before she stepped back into the group.

Kurayami was fidgeting next to me as she stared at the group. I wasn't sure why she was so nervous, there was no one there that she had an overly close bond with as far as I could tell, but before she could say anything everyone had started shouting out.

"Bye Jou!" Iori called over the other goodbyes as Sora hugged Koushiro awkwardly receiving a well deserved glare from Mimi. So did she like Koushiro now? Was that a thing? She was over rock stars and onto computer nerds...? I could do that—I could be whatever she needed... I guess.

Before the goodbyes could get too carried away Meiyomon waved his hands once more and we were surrounded again by a pink light.

"Where are we going?" Meiyomon asked loudly.

When no one spoke up Shuu raised his hand, "You could take me home—Me and Jun."

"You two live together?" Daisuke shot in aghast.

"Not yet," Jun said, her face turning red slightly, "I'm moving in next week..." Jun was adorable—and I had to admit that I was happy to have her in love with someone that wasn't me. Shuu manoeuvred his way toward Mieyomon, pushing through Meramon to do so, and instructed him on exactly where to go to get home. Soon we were saying goodbye to Jun, Shuu and their two digimon.

And then we were once again, in the air.

"I'm taking Iori home next." Meiyomon said with a grin.

"And why is that?" Iori asked, practically pouting as he held Upamon close to his chest.

"Your mother is probably worried." Meiyomon said softly. "I don't want her to be upset..."

Iori smiled, "You miss her don't you?"

"No!" Meiyomon said, though he was clearly lying.

We landed on the curb of a dimly lit street and Meiyomon was looking eagerly into the house windows, but the curtains were pulled closed on all of them. "Tell her I'll be right back." Meiyomon told Iori as he patted his head.

"We can get out too." Natsuni said to Goblimon.

Noriko however mistook that as her talking to her. "Ohhh!" She complained loudly, "I don't want to walk!"

"I'll walk you." Iori said with a groan.

"Oh good!" Noriko cheered, latching herself to Iori's arm almost causing him to drop Upamon. Iori held Upamon tighter as he looked back to Natsuni and Goblimon.

"Iori—" Natsuni said quickly, "I was just thinking... the movie theatre gives a discount on Wednesdays, so I was thinking maybe we could go then instead of Friday?"

"That's tomorrow..." Iori said slowly.

"Yeah..." Natsuni said, confused as to why it mattered.

"I kind of already have plans." Iori said softly.

"With me!" Noriko cheered excitedly, sticking her tongue out to Natsuni.

"I was also thinking of throwing some sort of party...?" Hikari suggested, "I don't know—just a thought. You're welcome to come Natsuni."

"We can go to the movies on Friday though—like promised." Iori smiled.

"No," Natsuni said, shaking her head, "That's alright. I'll just go alone." And with that she turned and took Goblimon's hand before walking down the street the opposite way Iori and Noriko were headed.

"Wait—!" Iori tried.

"Let her go." Noriko shot before dragging Iori with her down the road forcing Impmon to have to run to keep up.

"Bye guys!" Iori called over his shoulder hastily. "Bye Hikari... stay—stay safe."

"I promise." Hikari giggled as Meiyomon waved his arms one more time.

"Where to now?" Meiyomon asked.

"Rei's house." Taichi said quickly. "I'm way too tired to keep holding her here."

"Flattering Taichi..." Rei scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"I didn't mean that you were heavy!" Taichi tried, but Rei just laughed. Taichi relaxed a little as Rei shot out an address. It wasn't until she said the apartment number that I remembered that she lived across the hall from me. That meant that it was my stop too... and potentially Sora's. Her stuff was there anyway... she would probably want it—which meant it was my chance to talk to her.

Meiyomon landed on a balcony which was barely big enough fit all of us.

"Just open the door." Rei said quickly. Sora reached behind Taichi and turned the golden knob and let the glass door fling open wide enough for Taichi to fall through. Thankfully he caught himself in time, and spun around, balancing himself.

"Is it alright if I just... go through your house?" Sora asked. "I need to get my things from next door."

"Yeah." Rei smiled, "Go ahead—if my mom stops you tell her that you're here with me. If my brother stops you, just... run." She laughed nervously as Taichi dropped her gently onto the large bed in the center of the room.

"Hurry Sora," Daisuke moaned, "I'm so hungry..."

"I will," Sora smiled at him before opening the door into the house.

I moved quickly to get around Taichi, but Takeru placed his hand on my arm. I spun around a little impatiently until I saw the look on his face and I suddenly decided that Sora could wait.

"What's wrong...?" I asked him slowly as he held his tears back.

"I want to stay at your house tonight." Takeru said slowly. "Please... I don't want to go home... alone."

Suddenly my insides began twisting and I threw my hand over my stomach as I looked to him and nodded. "Absolutely." I said. "Come on."

"Bye Yamato!" Taichi said quickly.

"Takeru..." Hikari tried, but he didn't turn around. I shot an apologetic look over my shoulder to her and she nodded in understanding as I followed Sora through the house. She was already gone it seemed, so I made my way toward the door that led to the hallway.

"Hey!" I turned in surprise at the sound of the voice. I saw Neo Saiba, Rei's brother sitting in a chair at the dining room table. His hair was white blonde and his voice was cold. "Who was that extremely attractive young lady who just walked through here?"

"She's nobody." I said flatly, my heart clenching up with my fists in a jealous rage.

"She's Sora." Takeru said slowly. "If you want her then you have to give her the choice Yamato."

I looked to him and nodded—he was right. He was pretty mature for his age... I turned back to Neo and nodded. "But she's taken."

"Doesn't sound like it." Neo said with a grin.

I turned away from him and ignored whatever it was he said next, opening the front door and letting Takeru go first, closing the door behind me. I followed him into our own apartment and relaxed a little. The light to the guest bedroom was on and Takeru immediately went to the fridge to find food. I set the now sleeping Tsunomon on the living room couch and then slowly worked my way through the house and toward the guest bedroom where I slipped inside and closed the door as I turned to Sora who was sitting on the floor packing her things, Nyokimon sitting next to her fighting her drowsiness. "We need to talk." I told her causing her to jump in surprise.

_**Jou:**_

"Hi, I just had a baby."

That got the nurse's attention. She looked up to Momoe with wide eyes and then stared down to the baby.

"My ribs are broken." Willis smiled with a wave of his hand. The nurse looked over to him and nodded.

"We're pretty full right now." She said slowly looking around to the crowded waiting room. Was she really going to make us all wait? Everyone else here looked fine—other than one girl who was holding what looked to be a broken arm. Fanglongmon's army had tried to attack people, but in all seriousness they didn't do a good job. Everyone had locked themselves into their houses. The only digimon that could have hurt them were ones with opposable thumbs to open the front doors, while we had all been in the heat of battle the whole time. No one knew that though and I couldn't really expect them to give us special treatment. The nurse looked to us, worried. "But I'm sure we can squeeze you all in somewhere," She smiled and motioned for us to follow her. She led us through the crowds of sobbing people which only made me feel worse for expecting to go first. All of them were huddled in groups, but it made me smile to know that the worst was over for all of them. "We've been swamped ever since the first earth quake." The nurse explained.

"What earthquake?" Koushiro asked, "I don't remember one..."

"When the sky turned dark." The nurse clarified, trying to get him to remember, "and the clouds turned black—and when vegetation started growing at random."

"Oh." Koushiro said nodding, "I get it."

"When the worlds combined." Tatum agreed proudly.

"When what combined?" The nurse asked, "Sorry dear I didn't hear you,"

"Nothing." Koushiro and Tatum said as one.

If the humans of the world really had no idea what had happened... how were we supposed to fix anything? They'd just think it was natural disasters—I wonder what they thought of the digimon... it was a good thing we'd left our partners outside. Monzaemon, Bukamon, Gummymon, Kokomon, Zurumon, Monodromon, Pabumon and Tanemon were told to play outside, but I had a feeling that Bukamon, if not the others, had settled on sleeping instead.

Mimi was holding hands with Koushiro as the two of them walked next to the nurse while Tatum and Michael followed behind, also hand in hand. Willis was walking by himself toward the back of the group which left Momoe and I to walk next to each other. Even if she was ignoring my existence. She was gently rocking the sleeping child in her arms while pretending I wasn't there. I didn't mind though. Watching the baby swing back and forth as it opened and closed its mouth was adorable. It almost felt wrong—like she wasn't mine... she couldn't be. I wasn't a dad—was I ready to be a dad?

"You and your husband can wait inside here," The nurse said with a smile, motioning into a room to her left.

"Oh we're not married," I corrected with a smile.

"He doesn't even have to come in." She said simply.

"Uh, yes, actually, I do." I told her flatly. Momoe turned her head but I could see that she was smiling as she walked into the hospital room. "Thank you," I told the nurse as I slowly backed into the room, "Mimi, I'll meet you outside with the digi—with the others... and we can just go home?"

"Sure," Mimi winked at me before heading off down the hallway with the nurse and the others. I spun on my heels and turned to Momoe.

I was about to ask if I could hold our daughter, since I'd actually not held her yet—not including the whole birthing process, but Momoe spoke first. "Mimi lives with you?" She asked me, pretending she didn't mind.

"Yes..." I told her, moving over to sit in the chair next to her. "She lives in the second bedroom."

"Oh..." Momoe said, looking toward the door, anxiously awaiting the doctor. I wasn't sure why I couldn't just do it—I knew how to. I was almost done all of my schooling—I knew enough about babies to be able to help Momoe out even if she was a rare Amazonian tiger. But I figured we may as well wait for the doctor. For a brief panicked moment I thought that the doctor might be my father and I was willing to pick up and leave, but I remembered that my father specialized in brain surgery and not babies, so I knew I could relax.

"She moved from America, but her parents weren't supportive so I said she could stay with me." I explained slowly, "She's been there for about a month..."

"That's nice of you." Momoe smiled, still staring at the baby.

I was too tired to keep my brain focused on anything for too long—I didn't want to fall asleep, so I thought back to Momoe's baby names. "Akla...?"

"Aki." Momoe said, unable to fight a grin. "Is that what her name is going to be?" Momoe seemed more than unsure about the statement.

"I don't know." I responded. "We had a deal. She is a girl... you get to name her Aki if that's what you want." Momoe looked down to the child, unsure.

"Jou we need to talk." Momoe said slowly.

I nodded and reached into my pocket, pulling out the note. It was crumpled to the point where it could have fallen apart at any moment, and it was ripped toward the bottom. "About this?" I asked her, but before she could respond, I began to read aloud. "'_Jou, I'm so sorry... I'm leaving. I mean, I'm sure you already noticed that by the fact that I'm gone while you're reading this—but I have to do it'_—You were so right Momoe, I did realize that you were gone. And when I did, my heart broke. Into a million pieces and it has _yet_ to be put back together."

"You don't think it broke my heart too?" She asked, finally making eye contact with me. Her eyes were watering, but she refused to let the tears actually fall. "I cried for weeks Jou. It killed me to leave you."

"Then _why_?" I asked her simply. "Why go? Oh wait—I know... '_have to see the world, and if you won't let me do so, then I'm going to have to do it without your permission.'_ And the next part! The next part is a kicker—'_And I really love you, but if this means goodbye... if this means that we have to breakup then I understand._'

"I thought that I had to go!" Momoe said loudly startling the baby in her arms. She shook the child again and hugged her closer to her. "I thought that it would be my last chance for happiness. You know what they always say! Being a parent means that you don't get to have fun—you don't get to be happy—or crazy or exciting—it's your child's turn. You don't get that turn. I needed to feel happy."

"So you weren't happy with me...?" I asked her slowly. "Then why... didn't you leave."

"I _was_ happy with you." Momoe said, shaking her head, "I just didn't realize it. I thought that the only way to be happy was to see the world, and be excited or whatever—go on adventures... but I never once stopped to realize that the real adventure wasn't in Canada or Spain or Rome—it was with _you._ You are the adventure—and you are what makes me happy."

I froze, and tightened my grip on the note, and swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat. "I..."I shook my head and read more of the note, "'If, w_hen I get back, you aren't seeing anyone... and you want me back... then perhaps we could start over...'_" I read slowly. I looked up to Momoe who was staring at me with glossy brown eyes filled with hope. I shook my head and looked down to the note, and tore it in half before tossing it into the garbage at the other side of the room.

"I understand..." Momoe said slowly.

"Do you?" I asked her. "I don't think you do. You broke my heart Momoe. And—"

"I'm sorry—"

"Let me finish..." I told her. "You broke my heart. And I waited for three months for someone to come and help me... someone new to fix the problem—to fill the void that you left. You left such an impact on my life that I actually at one point vowed never to be in a relationship again. I chased you between worlds and dimensions to save you from an evil monster and then finally I did... and in the span of ten seconds you had managed to fix every piece of my heart—repairing it as if it had never been harmed... and now we're sitting here, with _our_ baby... and you're asking me if I want to start over."

Momoe mouthed the word 'yes' but no sound came out as she nodded, still holding back her tears.

"No..." I said shaking my head, which caused Momoe to turn her head away from me as she stared to the tiled ground and nodded. "No, I don't want to start over with you. I can't just pretend none of that ever happened. I can't just forget it all and start over."

"I understand." Momoe said again, "I made a mistake."

"I'm not talking about your mistake." I told her. "I'm talking about the way you smile at me whenever I walk into the room—and the way you pretend that you made the food that was clearly store bought—and the way that you always purposely forget something at home on your way to work just so you can come back in and kiss me one more time... and the way your nose crinkles when you smile, and the way you add 'digi' to everything, and how on our first date you were so nervous and so flustered that you made everything go wrong—and the way you would tell me that you loved me at every opportunity." Momoe slowly looked toward me, her face in a state of confusion and shock, "And now our baby. I can't forget her—I can't forget you, and I can't forget our adventure's together. So the answer is no. I don't want to start over Momoe... but I would _love_ it... if you would come home."

Momoe was biting her bottom lip and then nodded quickly, letting tears fall finally as she leaned forward and kissed me. I cupped her face with my hand and kissed her, her tears staining not only her face, but mine as well. I heard the baby in her lap make a strange gurgling nose which caused both of us to smile into the kiss as we pulled away and looked at the baby.

"I suppose I could get use to Aki..." I said with a smile, using my finger to trace my baby's face.

"No." Momoe said flatly. "I want you to name her."

My mouth opened in shock as the door opened and my phone began to vibrate. The doctor walked in and smiled at us both before sitting down across from Momoe. I recognized him—he was one of my father's friends. I pulled out my phone and saw that it was a text message from Iori.

_Have you named the baby yet? If not I think I've thought of the perfect name..._

"Jou?" I looked up suddenly to the doctor who was staring at me in a blank stare. "I-Is this your child?"

I looked to the baby and then smiled and nodded. "Yes... she's ours..."

"Your father never mentioned—"

"He doesn't know yet." I said quickly. "Don't tell him! Please..."

"Patient confidentiality..." The man nodded, looking suspicious.

"Thank you..." I smiled.

"Alright," The doctor said, "When did you give birth?"

"Tuesday—August the fourth." Momoe said quickly. "Eleven twenty three am." I looked to her with a surprised smile—I didn't know she had been keeping track so well.

"Alright," The doctor said, scribbling down some notes. "I'm going to have to give the baby some routine checkups." The doctor reached forward and took the baby from Momoe who was nervous to be handing the baby off once more. "And what's the name?"

"Oh she doesn't—" Momoe started.

"Emiko." I said flatly, looking to Momoe for agreement. "Emiko Kido." Momoe looked from me to the baby, and back to me with a smile, she nodded quickly.

"Pretty." The doctor nodded as something at his belt began to beep. He motioned for me to take Emiko from him and so I jumped to my feet and took her with a smile. She was so small... so soft... so cute... she fit perfectly in my arms—and she was mine.

Oh crap. This was mine. I had a baby!

"I'll be _right _back." The doctor informed us, "I'm sorry," he said as he excused himself from the room.

"Pretty name," Momoe smiled at me, "Where did you get it from?"

"Iori." I said flatly, "Momoe, I can't hold her—take her." I said as my breathing began to get heavier. "Oh my God... Oh my God... oh my God..."

"What's wrong?" Momoe asked, jumping to her feet and taking Emiko from me. "Jou, what is it?"

"I'm a dad." I spun around and began to pace the room, listening to the soothing sounds of my shoes click against the tiled floor. "I'm a father Momoe—I don't know how to be a dad—my dad was a terrible father! And my mother died! If I follow their lead I'll either _die_ or be an ass!"

"Jou," Momoe tried to calm me down.

I was breathing quickly as my chest began to seize up and cramp. "Oh my God Momoe! I suck! I can't do this—I really can't do this..."

"Jou..." Momoe said loudly causing me to stop walking. "You said it yourself. You traveled across dimensions to save me from a giant monster. You risked your life to save me and all of your friends... and even your crest thing—it's Faith. It's reliability. If you love this child even _half _as much as you love me or your friends... then you will be the best father ever. You have nothing to worry about."

As she spoke I slowly began to calm down until I was breathing normally again.

I smiled down to Momoe as she stared at me with a very serious expression before standing on her toes and kissing me.

"Now hold your daughter." Momoe said smiling gently reaching forward and placing Emiko into my arms. "We're a family now."

_**Koushiro:**_

Jou and Momoe got to see the doctor first. I wasn't bitter about it though. It was incredibly important that their daughter got looked at. And the fact that Mimi was clinging to my hand made the wait rather enjoyable. I almost didn't believe it, that she was pleased to find out that I liked her. I was even more surprised to find out that she liked me back. I felt like a child, the giddiness I felt over that fact, but I couldn't help it.

"Don't worry," Mimi was saying. "You guys will get checked out soon enough. It's not like anyone else here really needs it. Cuts and bruises are child's play compared to mutilation, broken bones and head trauma."

"Way to make us feel so much better with your labels," Tatum told her with a groan, while Willis flashed a boyish grin at the other patients waiting who were glaring at Mimi for trivializing their aches and ails.

"Do you guys have anywhere you can stay?" Mimi asked. "I mean, there's no way that hotels or inns are open right now, and you guys didn't make any sort of plans before coming over, and there's not a chance that you'd make it back to America before crashing."

"Probably not," Willis agreed.

"Good, so you're staying with Jou and I then," she said happily. Michael looked at her with suspicion, but decided that sounded fantastic. "You'll have to sleep on the floor though. There's a couch, but it doesn't turn into a bed or anything. Tatum can stay with me, but we'll be sharing with a baby, since my bed is in the nursery."

"The floor sounds like heaven right about now," Michael joked.

I couldn't help but agree with him. I was passed exhausted, and I still had to discover where my mother was. I doubted very much so that she stayed where I'd last seen her. She had too much fight in her, too much of a desire to help people. I had no doubt she'd be alive though. Dad on the other hand… He hadn't been there when I'd visited, and Mom didn't seem to have any idea where he was either.

"I can't wait to go to sleep," Mimi groaned, leaning her head on my uninjured shoulder.

"You can go now if you'd like," I told her softly. "You don't have to wait."

"Don't be silly. Even if I had my key and didn't _have_ to wait for Jou, I'd still wait with you," she promised. "I have to be sure you're okay. You could lose your whole arm if it gets too bad."

"I doubt there's an infection, but it hasn't had any time to heal," I said. "It's been ripped open again and again. I don't think there's been time for it to worry about infection yet."

"That's good to hear," a man said from behind me. I jumped and was quick enough to stop my fist from flying. Honestly, did people really think it was a good idea to sneak up behind tired—or even traumatized—people? We'd just brought about the victory that stopped the attacks and devastation that the digimon brought to the world. We were a little jumpy. Or _I_ was at least.

"Sorry," I muttered at his surprised expression. Mimi was giggling at my side.

"Don't apologize, I should have thought of that. It's been a rather trying time for all of us," he said as if he actually had to face the battle. He'd probably been inside this hospital the entire time, putting bandages on minor cuts. I was getting bitter. I really needed sleep before I started patronizing everyone. "Let's get this looked at, shall we?"

I nodded, and let Mimi drag me off behind the doctor—or nurse, I couldn't tell at the moment—down the sterile smelling hallway. I couldn't stand the feeling of hospitals, the aroma in the air, the sounds of coughing and complaints. I much preferred libraries. The silence was satisfying, with only the sounds of turning pages or the clicking of computer keys to break it, and the smell of old books permeated the air. Not that I had my laptop to bring with me anymore…

The only part of the meeting I cared to remember was when the doctor recoiled when he got a look at my shoulder. It was pretty disturbing to look at, mostly because it hadn't been properly cleaned. I just knew he was expecting a simple cut like all of the others. I couldn't describe how much better my shoulder felt when it had been cleaned and bound. It was as if I was a new person.

"You should take something for the pain," the doctor said when he'd finished. "At least the first night or two. It will help you sleep, and sleep will aid your body while it tries to recover."

"I won't need anything to help me sleep sir, trust me," I said. I'd gone far too long without sleep. My mind was feeling foreign to me, not nearly smart enough to be proud of. I'd sleep for an entire day if my mother would let me. She wouldn't. But how much would I love her if she did?

He nodded and looked like he might have pressed the issue, but he had a long line of people waiting to come in, and had to let me leave.

"There you are," Jou called as we stepped outside to greet our digimon partners.

"What's the scoop?" Mimi asked him immediately.

"The baby and Momoe are both fine," Jou said sounding relieved. "I knew they were theoretically, but to have a licensed doctor say the same was definitely a relief."

"I could have told you I was fine," Momoe said rolling her eyes. Jou put his arm around her, and smiled down at his small daughter. Mimi squealed happily.

"You've fixed your problems?" she exclaimed. I was too tired to care that I didn't know what she was talking about. With Mimi that was often the case anyway.

"We did," Jou said with a smile. "Meet Emiko by the way, officially at least."

"That's so pretty," Mimi cooed.

"Iori thought it up," Momoe said dryly, giving Jou a pointed look. He looked sheepish but shrugged.

"It's beautiful, just like her," he said.

"Who's beautiful?" Willis asked loudly, which I was thankful for. He'd been coming up behind me and I didn't want to attack him too.

"Emiko," Mimi said dreamily.

"We were thinking you might be the godmother, Mimi," Momoe said cautiously.

"And Miyako too," Jou said. "We couldn't decide on either of you, and no guys came to mind instantly anyway."

"I'd love to," Mimi said tapping her newly appointed goddaughter on the nose. "She'll love me most, 'cause Mimi's going to spoil you!"

"Not too badly I hope," Jou joked.

"Someone's got to," she pointed out.

"So, uh, where do you live Jou?" Willis asked.

"The east side of town… why?" he answered suspiciously.

"I offered them the floor," Mimi admitted. "I didn't want them on the streets."

"It's fine," Jou said, used to Mimi's action by now.

"There they are!" Michael exclaimed. "We were worried you might've left without us. Tatum's test took awhile."

"But I'm fine," Tatum said quickly when Mimi was about to ask. "They needed to be sure I didn't have a concussion, but I don't. I've just got to take it easy the next few days. The scrapes and bruises will fade on their own."

"That's what you get when you're thrown into a house," Willis told her.

"_You_ would know," she retorted cheekily, motioning to his broken ribs.

"I'm to the south," I said, before they could all walk away. "So I'll see you later I suppose."

Mimi looked back at me and smiled shyly. "Bye, Koushiro."

"Bye Mimi," I said back. She hesitated but turned to continue with our friends. "Mimi, wait."

"Yes," she said running the few steps there were between us, ending up right in front of me.

"I swore I'd do this if I lived," I told her before leaning in and kissing her right on the mouth. I'd thought about this so much over the last few days, but I'd never imagined it to be so nice. It was especially great when she started kissing me back. I held the back of her neck with the only hand I could lift high enough, thanks to the wrappings on my shoulder, and placed the other on her lower back. She seemed rather enthusiastic about it, because she threw both hands around my neck, pulling us closer together. She then ran her hand down my neck, to my shoulders, where she unfortunately squeezed as she tried to get to even ground.

I may have let out a strangled yelling sound that made her pull away, interrupting the whistling Willis was doing.

"I'm so sorry," she gasped.

"Honestly, I don't mind," I said a little breathily. "See you soon?"

"Maybe even tomorrow, if I wake up," Mimi said with a wink. I waited until they reached the corner before I started walking with Pabumon in my arms. He looked up at me, head tilted.

"Did I miss something?" he seemed to be asking me.

"No," I told him. "I'm just in love with that girl."

He tilted his head again. Confused.

"It was kissing. Mom and Dad do it all the time," I explained.

He huffed, seemingly saying, "How am I supposed to know that? I'm a digimon."

"I might explain it later, when I'm actually awake enough to understand what I'm saying," I promised.

He bounced around impatiently.

"Just another block," I said. "I can't wait to go to sleep."

His stomach informed me he was more excited about food, as we turned the final corner and came up to my apartment building. The elevator was thankfully working. I almost fell asleep in it, as it was the first time I'd stopped moving in a long while. Pabumon had to shake me when the door slid open, he mostly just slid his way up my arms and jumped on my good shoulder.

My front door was unlocked, which I should have found odd, but didn't bother to question as I walked in.

"Koushiro?" Mom called. "Oh thank the stars. I was so worried. Yuuko sent me home because I was no use to her in the state I was in. Darling I made brownies. Would you like some?"

"Sleep," I said sounding ridiculously like a zombie. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Alright," she said with a sigh. "What about you?"

Pabumon made some sounds of agreement and I handed him to Mom.

"You okay bud?" Dad asked, surprising me when I walked past the living room.

"m'fine," I mumbled. Thankfully he understood, and let me go to my room. He was talking with Andromon—which I realized I'd have to figure out, but decided to wait until morning to dwell on it. Just before I hit my pillow, I saw my alarm clock telling me that it was only seven o'clock with it bright red numbers. I couldn't care less as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

_**Sora:**_

I didn't even look back to Yamato as he stood there, practically lurking in the doorway. "What is there to say?" I asked him as straight faced as I could manage. I didn't want to panic—I had to keep strong, and collected in this. I had to keep my thoughts in order and not do anything rash.

"Us." He said simply, moving across the room and falling to the floor, on his knees in front of me. I looked up to him and there was the most intense look of sorrow in his eyes as he stared through my eyes and into my soul. I coughed nervously and turned away from him to continue packing my things. Daisuke was hungry after all. "Sora, listen to me."

I looked toward him and waited for him to start before continuing my packing, trying to avoid eye contact. "Sora... I know you probably don't care about this—but I'm sorry. I'm _so_... _so_ sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did. I went behind your back—I left you after you said that you didn't want me to. I joined the forces of darkness and literally fought against you. And I'm sorry."

"Mm..." Was all I had to say. I couldn't form words—what did he want me to do? Forgive him so we could kiss and live happily ever after? Because that wasn't going to happen.

"Sora I'm sorry." He said again.

"I think you should leave me alone for tonight. Let me think." I told him.

"You're not listening!" He said, almost angrily, "I'm sorry!"

"I _am_ listening Yamato." I said loudly, slamming a pile of my favourite books into my suitcase, startling Nyokimon and waking her up. "You just keep repeating yourself. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry' but I'm not willing to forgive you. Not yet. I need time!"

"Time shouldn't influence your opinion." Yamato said flatly. "Do you love me?"

"Yes." I said without thinking, "But you said it yourself—you lied, snuck around and fought against me and everything I believed in, leaving me to fight alone."

"You found Koushiro out of it all." Yamato pointed out simply as I spun around and jumped to my feet to clear my things from his desk. There were tears stinging at my eyes as I roughly scooped everything I could together.

"Because he stayed by my side." I said through gritted teeth. "Something _you_ should have done." I spun around and dropped to my knees again, tossing everything into the suitcase.

"Sora, I'm sorry..." Yamato said again. I could tell he mean it as I stared into his eyes... but that didn't change my stance. I wasn't willing to forgive him. Just because he was sorry didn't mean he wouldn't do it again. He did all those things—and was so easily influenced by Fanglongmon—what about another girl? He could easily be just as influenced by them. He was just a stupid boy after all... He cleared his throat and shook his head. "You're right... I'm sorry—I should go. I need to leave..."

He stood up and I wanted so desperately to ask him to stay... I wanted to forgive him, but I didn't. And I couldn't.

I heard the click of the door, and waited for the second click as it shut but it didn't so I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he was lingering in the doorway. "Does... this mean we broke up...?"

I mouthed the word, trying to find the courage to spit it out until finally I clamped my eyes shut and nodded, "Yes..."

Then there was a second click... just like that? That's all he had to say? I jumped to my feet and stormed around the room, tearing all of my clothes from the closet and dropping them into my second suitcase before opening my tote bag and throwing in all of my materials and sewing equipment as well as my tennis racket and uniform.

I slung that over my shoulder to join my backpack and then picked up both of my suitcases. Before noticing the carving in the wall above the bed that Yamato and I had done together. It was a mix of our crests. I shook my head and scanned the room for anything else that I might have forgotten. When I was sure I'd gotten everything I set my suitcase down and opened the door before picking it back up and stepping out.

Someone was standing just outside the door, and at first I thought it was Yamato, but looking him over for a moment I saw that it was Takeru. He was smiling kindly as he reached forward and took my two suitcases.

"Sora..." Takeru said slowly, his eyes puffy and red—he'd been crying, "Thanks for moving out of my room." We both laughed a little before I awkwardly threw my hands around his neck and hugged him. "But honestly... I'll miss you here Sora. I won't miss sleeping on Yamato's floor—but I will miss _you._"

"I'm not disappearing from your life Takeru..." I told him with a smile as I let Nyokimon leap out of the door before closing it and picking her up. "I'll still see you."

"But now I don't have the concept of you being my big sister to look forward to." Takeru said jokingly, but then he stopped smiling when he realized how it just... wasn't funny to me. He nodded, "But you're always going to be my sister." He told me with a smile.

"Takeru..." I said, not able to hold back my smile.

"Come on," He said, shaking his head and motioning toward the door. "I'll help you carry your stuff." He smiled at me, but didn't say anything more as he led me through the house and into the hallway. I shut the door behind us and then opened the door to Rei's apartment which thankfully wasn't locked. I stepped back and let him go in before me and then followed him through, closing the door behind me. I looked over to the dining room table as I did so... I could have sworn there was someone there, but when I looked I saw that all four chairs were empty.

I shook the thought and hurried after Takeru who was already standing in the doorway to Rei's bedroom where Taichi was sitting at the edge of her bed talking to her with a smile on his face. There was no way I was going to not shoot my arrow of love at each of them. They were so going to be my next target. I smiled as I passed them and stepped onto the Balcony. Taichi took one of my suitcases as he held Koromon in his other hand as Daisuke hurried forward and took the other one, holding Demiveemon in his other arm.

"Bye guys." Takeru said, waving with a smile, "Bye Hikari. Bye Sora..."

"Bye Takeru." Hikari and I said together as Taichi said his quick farewell to Rei. Daisuke waved as well as he could to Takeru before Meiyomon waved his arms in a very graceful, dancing way and we were surrounded by pink lights again, heading toward my house.

We landed smoothly outside my house... the home I hadn't been to in so long. I wondered for a moment if my mother would be home—how I would react—how she would react... but honestly I was too tired to care. I stepped away from the group that was clustered around the greenhouse before turning around and taking my suitcase from Daisuke. I tried to take the one from Taichi too but he shook his head and started walking with me.

I nodded and let him lead me toward the porch my father had built.

"You okay?" Taichi asked me in a whisper. I nodded but said nothing. "You and Yamato... I heard you yelling."

"You heard the whole thing?" I gasped, my face turning red as I bit my bottom lip. That was embarrassing...

"No. I just heard yelling. I couldn't make out what you were saying. I tried to drown it out from the others." Taichi said simply.

"Thanks..." I smiled at him, feeling relieved. I wasn't sure if he wanted me to elaborate on the yelling or what the reason was exactly that he brought it up at all, so I nodded and said. "We broke up."

"Figured as much." Taichi nodded, "Guessed that a few hours ago... when he joined the dark side in the first place." I let out a laugh which confused Taichi. "What's so funny?"

"It was only a few hours ago." I told him as I let him go up the stairs first. "So much has happened in the last few days."

"That's true." Taichi said with a smile. "So much drama..."

"That too," I smiled at him as we paced the deck toward the front door which I could only hope would be unlocked.

"So how does it feel to be home?" He asked.

"I haven't really thought about it." I lied. Of course I had. I needed to hide my feelings from Taichi and even from myself. I was honestly terrified of what my mother would think about me coming home... what if she was mad at me like I'd been to her? What if she wasn't ready to forgive me like I was here to do with her...?

"You want to go out sometime?" I let my eyes pop open as he said it and tried to shake it off but he quickly put his hand on my shoulder and shook his head as his face turned red. "N-Not a date. I just want to be friends again. You know? I think it's about time you and I caught up..."

"I agree..." I said a little too quickly, nodding with a grin on my face. "Can't believe I actually thought that you meant that we should go out..." I said, looking away as my face burned.

Taichi laughed nervously, "Pshh! That would be bad—remember last time we tried that?"

"What do you mean?" I asked him slowly.

"A chain of events that resulted in a demon." He winked at me before opening the front door. I gasped, as it swung open. I wasn't ready—were they even home? Well all of the lights were off so I knew that they weren't home yet... which was probably a good thing. Taichi smiled at me before setting my suitcase inside the door and turning to me to hug me. He tried a few times, finding himself unable to with all the things in my arms and settled on patting my head. I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't enough... but that was all I had. He turned and ran off toward the others. I watched them go as Meiymon swung around his arms one more time to head to his last stop.

I turned into the house and closed the door before walking toward my room. I reached for the handle, but my hand hovered for a moment. I was so used to walking into this room... but I hadn't been here in so long—was it still even my room...? Had they set it up for something else?

I couldn't wait anymore. I pushed the door open and sighed. There was everything I'd left behind. My bed was in the center of the room, made perfectly, the drapes were pulled closed, the way I liked them and my closet door was still painted the way Taichi and I had done the summer before the digital world had called to us. There were boxes in the corner of all the things I was willing to give away, but apparently my mother hadn't bothered to give them away yet...

I smiled as I dropped my suitcase on the floor and piled everything else on top. I set the sleeping Nyokimon down on my bed and turned toward the boxes of old things. I opened the box on the top and sighed. The first thing on the top was a picture of my mother and father in a heart shaped picture frame. I instantly set that on my sewing desk, taking it out of the boxes. I looked in the rest of the box and found my two favourite hats from when I was a child. I smiled at them and pulled out the one I'd gone to the Digital World in, placing it on my head. It was a tight fit, but it brought back memories. But I pulled it off when I spotted something else. I reached my hand in and pulled out the hair clip that Taichi had gotten for me.

I turned it over in my hand a few times before clipping it into my hair and sighing.

There was a knock on the door which almost gave me a heart attack, but I quickly jumped to my feet and rushed toward the door. What if it was my mother? No—it wouldn't be my mom... why would she knock?

I flicked the light on and pulled the door open to reveal a man and a woman. Both of them were dressed rather formally, and looked rather tired—but nowhere near as tired as I felt.

"Where is Mimi?" The woman, supposedly Mimi's mother, asked me.

"What do you—?" I froze. Mimi had told her parents she was staying with me to avoid conflict with them about living at Jou's house—I had almost forgot. But I wasn't in the mood for lying or arguing so I shook my head. "She's not here. Go to Jou Kido's house. She lives with him—but go in the morning. They're at the hospital right now." And with that I slammed the door. I just didn't care to be totally honest.

I picked up the last suit case and flicked the light off before bringing the suitcase to my room before opening it. I was almost asleep as it was, but I wasn't going to go to bed as dirty as I was. I pulled out a fresh pair of pyjamas—though I'd have to use whatever was in the bathroom—I hadn't remembered to take any of my bathroom supplies from Yamato's house.

I entered the bathroom and smiled. My robe was still hanging on the hook by the shower, and as I hurried over to inspect it I noticed that it was clean... my mother had been cleaning my laundry even though I wasn't here. I honestly didn't know what to think about that... but it made me smile.

I practically ripped my dirty clothes off at this point. They were covered in blood, and sweat and dirt and grime and anything else humanly possible—so I was going to throw them out. But just as I was about to turn the shower on I froze. I heard someone walk in the front door.

I nervously grabbed my robe and threw it on, tying it tightly and walking slowly toward the door. As I did I heard my phone vibrate. I looked at it, sitting on the counter.

_New Message: Yamato_

I stared at the phone a moment before deciding that whatever it was, was going to have to wait, and throwing the bathroom door open.

"AUURGH!" My mother screamed as she slowly advanced upon the bathroom with Dad right behind her holding a strangle looking digimon with a pink belt like thing. I figured it must have been Centarumon, but... smaller—I remembered Koushiro talking about him before—it was a Bokomon, and in his other arm was a green bud digimon. Dad was smiling at me, but as I turned to Mom I saw that her face was very solemn.

"Mom, I—" I tried to explain but I was cut off by her hugging me tightly. I threw my arms around her and smiled. Dad was here... they were together... they were in love. So no matter what happened... love was always existent...? I thought about my buzzing phone, and then to the clip in my hair and smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too..." Mom smiled hugging me tighter as my dad said "Aw," and tried to join the hug.

"I'm going to have a shower now though," I said with a grin.

"You smell so bad," Dad joked, causing us all to start laughing.

_**Ken:**_

Watching them leave in a burst of pink light was nerve-wracking. I hadn't thought too much of what I'd do when I was alone with her. I knew what I needed to say. But could I say it?

Wormmon was already asleep, curled into my chest. Poromon was as well. He'd fallen asleep before he could digivolve back into Hawkmon.

"What do we need to talk about?" Miyako asked me. But I could tell from her voice she already knew some of it. How could she not? We needed to talk about where we stood.

"Are we okay?" I asked. I knew the answer was no, but they was the only words I could force out of my dry mouth.

"You know we're not," she said softly. "I want us to be, but we aren't. You were against us, Ken."

"I'm not even going to pull the 'I was being controlled' card. I know I was against you. And at the time, with him in my head, it was thrilling. And that scares me. But I know with a clear conscience I'd never be able to fight against you, Miyako. I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong though," Miyako told me sadly. "You _were_ under Fanglongmon's control. You don't have to be sorry. The fact that you're willing to be makes me so happy, you have no idea. But you don't need to be. He attacked your point of weakness. Daisuke told me all about it."

"Really?" I asked confused. None of what she was saying made any sense to me. We weren't okay, but I didn't do anything wrong? It didn't add up.

"What are we doing?" she asked. I could hear tears in her eyes, but she refused to look at me. She was just staring at the trees in the distance. "We were the fairy tale couple, you know? Taichi and Sora was a train wreck, and Sora and Yamato were conflicting with each other to the point where he voluntarily joined Fanglongmon's side. Hikari and Willis are doomed—yes, I say so only because I'm rooting for Takeru—but Jou and Momoe don't even speak to each other really when they're together. _We_ were it for our friends. And we don't know where we're going."

"What are you talking about? We're still perfect for one another. We compliment each other's personalities. My calm collectiveness to your eccentricities," I reminded her.

"But you've got a goal for the future. I don't," she told me. "You're going to go off and become what you've always dreamed of, and I'm going to stay here in Odaiba and take over my parents' store or something else that is equally depressing."

School. The future. I should have known she'd bring them up. She always managed to bring it back to this. I never talked about it. I couldn't. It was too hard for me to imagine a future where she wasn't with me. I felt like she was my reality and everything else was just a dream, a vague image of what my perfect future could be. I didn't like to think of what it would cost to make that dream a reality too. I might lose _her_ in order to make our future brighter. But without my dream girl, did I really want to worry about my dream career? I couldn't win either way.

So I never thought about it. Never talked about it. Unless I _had_ to.

"I got accepted," I said quietly. "To the academy. My parents were thrilled. They have me down to go to the Police Academy next fall."

"Just a month from now," Miyako corrected. I sighed. _She_ sighed. "That's not very long. You could have told me."

"I didn't want to make you upset," I told her.

"So you thought you wouldn't tell me until you had to leave? That it might soften the blow?" she said incredulously.

I wouldn't have told her. I would've debated the pros and cons until it was too late. She thought I was being purposely cruel. I didn't want to hurt her, but I had to think of myself on this one. Which path was actually right for me…and _why_ couldn't I have both?

"It might actually have been a good thing," Miyako said. "This rift in our relationship that Fanglongmon caused. It'll get me used to the fact that you're gone."

"I'm not gone yet though," I protested. "And what about long distance? We could try that…right?"

"I don't think it would work for us," she said, turning to face me for the first time. She was crying, silently. This was hurting her as much as it was hurting me. She was never very good at hiding her emotions. "Not now. Not with _this_ between us. It might have, before this adventure happened. But not now. I can't, _we_ can't fix this when you're so far away."

"So we're breaking up?" I asked, my voice wavering and betraying my emotions to her.

"I guess," she said crying harder now, and not so silently. "I don't see any other choice."

"Okay then," I said. "Do you still want me to walk you home…or?"

"Yes. Just one more time," she said sobbing.

I didn't know whether to put my arm around her to comfort her in her tears, or to hold her hand so I could savour the feeling of it in mine, or even to just have no contact at all, because we weren't… dating… anymore.

We walked through the ruined streets. The asphalt was clear of trees now, and the colours were brighter, even in the growing darkness. There was nothing sinister about it anymore. It was comforting to know that the world was healing despite my broken heart. Cars still littered the streets though, looking for all the world as though they crashed into thin air, now that the trees they hit were gone. Many shop windows were smashed, and a few windows of houses were as well. All things considering, it wasn't as much damage as I'd once thought.

Miyako's sobs slowly got smaller, until she was only sniffling ever once in awhile by the time we reached her apartment building. I didn't want to let her go.

"This is me," she said awkwardly, as she did on our first date so long ago.

"I know," I said reluctantly.

"I'll see you around then," she told me.

"Until September," I reminded her.

"Yeah," she choked out. "Right."

"Goodbye Miyako," I whispered, leaning in and kissing her cheek, just so I'd remember what it felt like, what she smelt like. She cupped my face as I pulled away and kissed me softly on the lips. It was so much better than my idea.

"I still love you," I said before I could stop myself. It was as if I had to remind her desperately that I did, just in case she forgot.

"I still love you too," she said, dropping her hands. "Goodbye Ken."

"Bye," I said again as she backed up to the door, and slipped through it, not looking away from me until she _had_ to. And then she was gone.

Gone from view, gone from her place in my life. I didn't have her anymore. I continued a similar mantra as I walked home. I'd forgotten that buses wouldn't be running, and neither would the subway. I was exhausted, and I wasn't sure at first if I'd even make it home, or if I'd fall asleep in the middle of the street. But I made it.

Mom wasn't waiting at the door like I thought she would be. She had a tendency to be overprotective, in a sweet way, but I was glad she wasn't waiting to attack me with hugs and kisses and love and affection. I didn't want it. I was miserable, and I was exhausted. And I wished I, like Wormmon, had slept through that whole conversation. Then it would just be a dream, and not my new reality. The reality I didn't ever want to live in.

We'd just saved the world. Did we _really_ have to go through a breakup too?

"Are you hurt?" I heard my mother ask. I sighed, ready to answer that no, physically I was not hurt, when I heard my dad answer her instead.

"I told you," he said softly. "We barricaded the doors as soon as the attacks started. We were safe. I was more worried about you and Ken then myself. I didn't know if _you_ were safe."

"I was plenty safe," she said. "I had Hiroaki Ishida and Toshiko Takenouchi and Rei Saiba to keep me company, and we met up with a young couple, Shuu Kido and Jun—Daisuke's sister. We helped save the world dear. And I _did_ nearly die, when Wisemon got me, but I wasn't wiped out of existence or anything. You worry too much."

"I worry too _much_!" Dad shouted. Even his loud voice wasn't enough to wake Wormmon. I decided at that moment to let my presence be known. I didn't want them fighting. Not in front of me.

"I'm home," I called. My voice sounded dull, depressed, and I hoped they would chalk it up to my exhaustion. I didn't want to talk about Miyako just yet.

"Good," Mom said happily. "Oh look at you. You get to bed young man. I'm sure you're tired. Do you want me to make you something to eat first, or are you just going to sleep?"

"Sleep," I said.

"Alright dear. I'll make breakfast late tomorrow. Maybe I'll even make brunch," Mom decided.

"Sounds good," I said.

"Ken," Dad called. I looked to him. He looked fine. I felt guilty that I barely thought of him at all, but was definitely pleased to see he looked well rested and fed and not torn to pieces. "I'm glad you're safe."

"You too," I told him, before dragging myself to bed. I welcomed sleep with open arms, and it didn't take too long to come to me either. I wouldn't be plagued with thoughts of Miyako at least, while I slept.

_**Hikari:**_

I slowly opened my eyes and stared at the alarm clock that sat on my bedside table. It was ten thirty... that wasn't such a bad sleep really. I stretched my arms and let myself yawn before throwing the sheets aside and getting out of bed, being as quiet as I could to not wake the sleeping Kurayami in the cot on the other side of the room.

It was going to be a fun day today. Doing whatever I wanted—not having to run around and risk my life—not having to do anything at all! Plus I wasn't sick... I could eat candy! I hadn't eaten candy in three years! Takeru would be so proud of me that my first thought was to eat candy.

I smiled as I opened my closet door and began humming. I picked out an outfit before heading out of my room and toward the bathroom. The door was wide open so I stepped inside and turned on the shower.

About half an hour later I was stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around me as I stood and stared at my blurry reflection in the foggy mirror. I sighed dramatically as I took a deep breath in the steaming room. I reached forward and wiped my hand across the mirror to clear some fog and saw the reflection of a boy standing behind me.

I screamed and spun around quickly to come face to face with the dark haired, mysterious boy standing in the bathroom.

The bathroom door flung open suddenly and I turned to look at Daisuke as he barged into the room wearing nothing more than one sock and his underwear.

"What's wrong?" He asked quickly before noticing that I was only wearing a towel. His face turned red quickly as I looked away from him to the place where the boy had been standing.

"Nothing—I thought I saw something." I told him. "Now... go away..." I laughed nervously as he nodded and backed out of the room.

"Where are you?" I asked flatly.

I felt a tapping on my shoulder. I spun around to look at him. He was smirking as if what had just happened was funny—but I couldn't say that I agreed.

"Who are you?" I asked him, "I want to help you."

"You can't help me." He said with a sigh. "I'm sorry, it's just not possible... I think."

"You don't know?" I asked, "Just tell me what you need... I will do my best to help you."

"I don't remember what I need." He said slowly, "I'm looking for someone..."

"Lopmon?" I asked quickly and excitedly, but he shook his head.

"No... It's a person." He said slowly, but then he shook it off, "No matter... My name is Yukai." He said, showing me his hand and hoping for me to shake it. I reached forward and tried to take it but my hand went straight through his. I gasped but was not overly surprised. With everything I'd been through in my life, I wouldn't even be shocked if he transformed into a giant killer robot to destroy New York—I'd been watching too many movies with Takeru. "Sorry... I always forget that I'm..." he shook his head. "I'll see you around Hikari." He said, waving to me as he vanished from the bathroom.

I continued my morning ritual as if nothing had happened, excluding the medicine, but I couldn't get the boy off my mind. He had very blue eyes... and his hair was so dark...

I was soon dressed, with my hair clipped back—still wet—and having had my teeth brushed. I opened the bathroom door and set off down the hallway. I heard voices though so I slowed a little—who was it? The closer I got the more sure I was that it was Taichi and Daisuke.

"You snore though," Taichi was saying, "Which is fine—I do too I think—but just make sure that I fall asleep first."

"I can try..." Daisuke said slowly.

"And try to wear clothes." Taichi added—that one I agreed with. "But other than that—I guess you can stay."

"Thanks..?" Daisuke said slowly. I heard the sound of cereal being poured into a bowl at the kitchen table. "I feel so naked."

"That's because you're not wearing clothes..." Taichi pointed out.

Daisuke laughed, "I mean without the goggles." He clarified.

"Well if you win the vote, then you can have them back." Taichi said.

"And when is this vote going to happen?" Daisuke asked.

"How about today?" I suggested, butting into their conversation, and revealing that I'd been eavesdropping on the two of them... again. "I was thinking of inviting everyone down to the new cafe down the street—we could have a celebration party and vote then if you'd like."

Taichi and Daisuke looked to me as one and then to each other and nodded. "Sure." They said together.

I moved to sit down at the table but jumped in surprise at the sight of a man standing next to the television in the living room. At first I thought it was Yukai and I remembered him standing in the bathroom. I blushed slightly, shaking my head and realizing that it was actually my father.

"Dad?" I asked, "When did you get here?"

"Few hours ago," He said with a grin. "Do you mind if they watch your movies Hikari?" I gestured toward the couch where Salamon, Agumon, Veemon, and Kamemon were sitting. I was happy to welcome Kamemon to the family—especially because he was adorable. "You're the only one with child movies."

I nodded as Daisuke snickered and sat down, my face turning red again just as the door flew open.

"Phew!"

"Mom!" I smiled, jumping to my feet and hurrying toward the front door where my mom was standing, wiping the sweat from her brow.

"Kids!" She gasped excitedly, rushing forward and throwing her arms around me. "You're home! I was afraid you'd still be out there risking your lives for us all."

"Nah," Taichi said with a grin, "Been there, done that." He and Daisuke laughed as the movie started playing.

"Oh!" Mom smiled, "What're you watching?" She stepped into the kitchen and let her face fall at the sight of Dad in the living room. "Where have you _been_?"

"I was imprisoned by a clown." Dad said, smiling awkwardly.

"Yeah?" Mom said, rolling her eyes, before replying with an equally bizarre statement, "And I threw exploding muffins at a giant parrot." Both of them stared at each other for a moment before laughing and rushing toward each other. Dad lifted her off of her feet and spun her around as he kissed her and she giggled until her feet were back on the ground.

"We should let everyone know about the voting party." Taichi said to me as he stood up with his empty bowl of cereal and giving Mom and Dad a very disgusted look, "Text them," He told me as Mom grabbed him and brought him in for a hug.

"You know you're happy to see me!" Mom laughed as she hugged him tightly.

"Okay okay!" Taichi said loudly, pushing away from Mom embarrassed as Daisuke and I laughed at him. He straightened his shirt and cleared his throat. "I am happy you're okay though Mom." He said before walking off. Mom smiled and put her hand over her heart as if Taichi had just said the most touching thing imaginable—which he actually kind of had... for Taichi anyway.

I slipped past Mom and Dad and down the hallway into my bedroom where I picked up my D-terminal before typing in a very quick message to everyone except Yamato. Takeru was at his house and so I didn't have to send two.

I heard a knock on the door and quickly responded by pocketing my D-terminal and rushing to the door. I pulled it open and smiled at the boy who stood on the other side.

"Hey Iori," I said to him with a grin Iori looked surprisingly good for what he'd just gone through, "Hi Armadillomon," I said with a smile to the digimon at Iori's feet. "Come in," I stepped aside and they both hurried inside. Iori looked fairly worried as he spun around to face me. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I have a date with Noriko today." He said, panicked. "I can't do this! How am I supposed to go on a date with someone I can barely stand to look at?"

"I don't know..." I told him slowly, "Wait! Why don't you have your date at the group thing I was planning today? That way you won't have to be alone—but it'll still be a date."

"What group thing?" Iori asked as his D-Terminal began beeping. He pulled it from his pocket and smiled, "Oh." He had just gotten my message. "That will do." he chuckled.

"Come into my room." I told him as Daisuke began dancing in the open doorway of his room. Iori looked confused until I led him toward my room where he spotted Daisuke. He laughed a little before I pulled him into my room where Kurayami was now sitting on the floor, staring at my open closet. I spotted Armadillomon turn to see the other digimon.

"I'll be... back." He said to Iori as he ran to watch the movie with them. Kurayami jumped when he spoke and turned to look at us.

"Oh—sorry..." She said nervously, "I... like your clothes."

"Thanks," I told her with a smile as Iori sat down at the computer chair and spun around a few times.

"You know..." He said slowly, "I had two super awkward kisses yesterday..."

I laughed, and then froze, "Wait me too." I told him slowly.

"At least yours were with the same person." Iori said.

"I had my first kiss too." Kurayami said, moving closer to us. "But Fanglongmon had his before I had mine." It took a moment to understand for me, but I picked it up from the stories Daisuke had told me the night before, and I suddenly started laughing with the others.

"Hikari..." I looked up quickly to see the door cracked open and Willis stepping into the room. "Taichi let me in."

"Hi!" I smiled brightly, waving to him. "We were just—" Before I could say anything else Iori and Kurayami jumped to their feet and left the room together. "Or not..."

Willis moved across the room and sat on the bed next to me. He sat in silence for a moment before looking up to me and staring into my eyes. I was nervous... I wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but I felt as if it were very serious.

"Have you talked to Takeru lately?" He asked me slowly.

"Not since last night... why?" I asked him.

Willis looked to his hands that were folded in his lap and said "Because he's in love with you."

"What?" I asked, my mind entirely frozen. "No he isn't."

"Dammit..." Willis muttered. "I promised myself I wasn't going to say that." He stood up and started pacing as he bit his lip.

Takeru _didn't _like me that way. We were just best friends—that was all. Nothing more... Willis _had_ to be wrong.

"I'm such an idiot!" he said kicking the air before falling back onto my bed and laying down. "I'm sorry—I didn't mean to say that. It's not fair to him..."

"He doesn't—" I tried.

"Good. Think that." Willis cut me off, growling at himself, "I'm so sorry..." There was a silence in which I tried to figure out why Willis thought that Takeru liked me... perhaps he did. Maybe I was just really bad at reading boys emotions... "Do you love him?" Willis asked me.

"What?" I gasped. "No, I don't."

"Are you sure?" He asked me, sitting up and staring at me. I nodded firmly, not breaking eye contact. Because I wasn't in love with Takeru—I didn't even know what love was like. Everyone described it as a bubbly warm feeling that spread through your body that made you want to do stupid things to make the person smile—but I couldn't say I'd ever felt that way... "How can I be sure you don't love him? You spend an awful lot of time with him..."

"He's my best friend." I told him slowly. "But I don't love him."

"Then who _do _you love?" He asked me.

"I love _you_." I said as firmly as I could, but like I said, I didn't know what love was. I couldn't make sense of my feelings anymore than I could make sense of my math homework—but I knew I felt something for Willis, and they say that love is different for everyone—so there was a high possibility that it was love that I was feeling. I wanted to be around him... I felt safe when he was near, and I couldn't help but smile every time I saw his face...

"But...?" He asked me.

"But nothing." I said flatly.

"But something...?" He tried.

"No buts." I confirmed with a grin.

"Yes buts?"

"No buts."

"But, what?"

"But this," I said, leaning forward and kissing him with such force that I pushed him back into a laying position. I laughed and rolled off of him, without realizing he was at the edge of my bed, and fell straight to the floor only to laugh harder.

I stopped suddenly when the door opened. I looked toward the door and saw my mom's feet. "Hikari—you can't be in your room alone with your boyfriend..." She said slowly.

"Right... sorry mom." I said slowly.

"And there's someone here to see you all." She said before her feet retracted, back out the door. Willis jumped to his feet and helped me do the same before we walked out into the hallway. I saw Taichi, Iori, Daisuke and Kurayami sitting on the couch in the living room, so I took Willis' hand and dragged him toward them, passing Kamemon, Mom and Dad who were sitting in the kitchen.

When I walked through the door I froze. Agumon was sitting on the floor in front of the couch with Veemon, Lopmon, Terriermon, Armadillomon and Salamon. But on my dad's favourite chair sad a very elegant looking lady in a long princess cut green dress. Her hair was dark and her skin was tinted green—but the strangest part was that she had large wings.

"Who... are you?" I asked slowly.

"She's a Fairy Queen that I saved from Fanglongmon's palace." Iori smiled to me. For a brief moment I hoped that she would be Kurayami's mother—that would be why I couldn't find her—but Kurayami was looking at the woman with the same expression as everyone else, and also the woman was a fairy. I moved forward and sat on the floor, lifting Salamon and Lopmon into my lap as Willis sat next to me, allowing Terriermon to climb onto him as well.

"Greetings," The Queen said with a simple wave of her hand and a bow of her head. "I have come to speak to you, Iori... but I suppose it would be best if Daisuke and the others were here as well,"

"She knows my name!" Daisuke said excitedly as if she were some sort of celebrity. I noticed thankfully that he was wearing clothes now though.

"What can I help you with...?" Iori asked.

"With your permission I would like to modify the memories of the humans who witnessed anything unusual in the past few days." The Queen said with a very solid amount of confidence.

"You can do that?" Taichi asked.

"Of course I can," The Queen said, smiling. "I can do many things. But at the moment, all I wish to do is convince the humans that a very _natural_ disaster happened here and harmed them all rather than let them all live in fear of digimon. They were not acting of their own accord, and thus I do not wish for the humans to judge them too harshly." Her voice was bubbly and high, and it made me smile more than the conversation required.

Iori looked to Daisuke and Taichi for confirmation of what to say and both of them shrugged their shoulders and nodded.

"You may as well." Willis inputted. "It will save them all a lot of trouble—and save us a lot of explaining."

"But not us." I clarified quickly.

"Oh of course not my dear," The Queen smiled to me.

"Or our families and close friends—like Rei and Iori's friends who's names I forget.." Taichi said thoughtfully, "My dad would forget about his new partner Kamemon—that would suck."

"Indeed that would, as you say... suck." The Queen bobbed her head slightly on the last word. "I promise not to affect them either, nor others in this world that have found and accepted their digital partners because of these events. It simply would not do to cause them hardships in their already progressing unions."

"What about recordings and whatnot?" Daisuke asked.

"The humans will perceive recordings differently after I cast my spell." The Queen smiled.

"You're pretty." Veemon blurted out randomly causing both Lopmon and Terriermon to burst out in laughter. "Well she is!" Veemon said, joining them in laughter.

"Are we all agreed?" The Queen asked us. And when we all nodded she stood from her chair and smiled. Slowly she brought her hands together into a clap and then let them fall gracefully. "The spell has been cast."

"Thanks—" Iori tried, but before he could even finish that word the Queen had started walking from the room.

"I have many things to get done my friends, I shall see you at a later point in time." She smiled at us and waved, "Specifically _you_ Mr Iori. I must commend you for keeping Miss Yagami safe. I am proud of you."

She was the one who told Iori to keep me safe? I looked from her to Iori whose face was a little red, and then back to the Queen, but she was gone.

"I'm hungry..." Agumon said as if the Queen hadn't even been there.

"You're always hungry." Taichi noted as he patted his partners head. "Come on though. We can make something for you..."

"I can make noodles!" Daisuke said excitedly.

"YAY!" Veemon cheered, jumping to his feet and following the two boys out of the room.

"That Queen saved your life didn't she?" Salamon asked me, looking up at me with big eyes. I nodded slowly.

"It was actually Iori of course—but I think..." I turned to Iori for confirmation, and he was nodding, so I continued, "She sent him a message in a dream to save me."

"That's so kind of her!" Salamon smiled.

I felt a tap on my shoulder so I turned to see Kurayami, motioning for me to follow her. I nodded and jumped to my feet before following her into the hallway where she spun around and stared at me.

"I need your help..."

_**Takeru:**_

I knew I was awake, but I could still remember my dream so clearly I could almost see it... Patamon and I had been on a roller coaster while Hikari and Gatomon waited for us... I knew how much Hikari hated Roller coasters—my dreams were so accurate. Suddenly though I remembered what had happened next. Piedmon had appeared on the tracks, stopping the cart from moving further using his foot to stop it easily. In his left hand he held a long silver sword, and in the other sat a human head. Slowly he turned the head around to me to reveal that it was my mother.

I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't let me—I was too tired—and I ended up falling out of bed with a loud crash.

Well _that_ opened my eyes. I sat up and looked around, rubbing my eyes. Where was I?

Right... I was in Yamato's house. I was here because I didn't want to go home to a house that I lived with my now... with my mother.

I jumped to my feet and quickly made the bed. I didn't want to mess up this room—not after Sora had worked for so long keeping it clean. I noticed the carving on the wall—the mix between the crest of love and the crest of friendship. I had stared at it until I fell asleep—which was about five full seconds.

I looked to the pillow I had set out for Tokomon the night before, and saw that he was gone and the door was ajar. I slipped out of the room and smiled. I smelled food!

I hurried toward the kitchen where I slid across the floor in my socking feet and sat down at my regular seat. Yamato was sitting across from me staring at his phone that lay on the table in front of him as food sizzled in the frying pan behind him. I loved food. That along with comic books was the only thing that could really keep me from going insane—it always kept my mind off of the harder things in life. Like Hikari—or my... mother's passing.

As I realized that I was replacing my mother for food I practically disowned my own mind. Firstly—that was the rudest thing ever. And second—if I kept doing that, I'd eventually get fat.

"Hey Takeru!" I turned to see the excited Patamon running into the room. "You sleepy head!"

Gabumon ran in after him as I hugged Patamon. "No fair you can't hide with Takeru!" Gabumon said, "I can't catch you if you're there!"

"We're playing tag." Patamon explained as if it were the silliest fact on the planet. "I'm winning so far."

"Yeah," I laughed, "Because Gabumon can't fly!"

"Yup!" Patamon laughed as he spread his wings and flew from the room. Gabumon turned quickly and chased him. I smiled, watching them before turning to Yamato.

"I'm making eggs if you want some." Yamato said without taking his eyes off of his phone. "I did make bacon but Patamon and Gabumon ate it all."

"Isn't that a form of cannibalism?" I asked.

"I'M NOT A PIG TAKERU!" Patamon laughed as he flew around the living room. I turned back to Yamato who had smirked, but then returned to his solemn expression, staring at the phone.

"Waiting for Sora?" I asked him. That got his attention. He looked away from the phone and up to me and nodded. "I'm really sorry about your break up and all." I told him honestly, "I was really routing for you two..."

"Because you and Hikari have a bet running." Yamato said in passing, "Whoever is first to be Sora's sibling wins—of course you want me to marry her... so you would win."

"There's that." I told him, "But honestly, you two were my favourite couple. I mean you didn't have much competition—Ken and Miyako were like a married couple and half the time I forgot they were even together... Willis and Hikari suck together, and Koushiro and Mimi still won't accept that they _are_ in a relationship..."

"You only think Hikari and Willis suck together because you're in love with her." Yamato said, staring right through me.

I shook my head quickly and then looked back to him. "Correction... I _was_ in love with her. I'm over Hikari."

"Three years, down the drain?" Yamato asked, "Just like that?"

"Just like that." I nodded.

"I wish it was that easy..." Yamato said reaching forward and clicking a button on his phone to turn the screen back on.

"You need to give her some time." I said as I jumped to my feet and strode across the room toward the stove to turn the heat down and finish Yamato's cooking, noticing that it was 1:34... I slept in for quite a while... "She'll either realize that she misses you and wants to be with you, or she won't."

"Gee thanks..." Yamato sighed.

"I know it's blunt, but it's the truth." I told him honestly. "You didn't really handle yourself very well in the breakup anyway..."

"You're on her side?" He asked me sharply.

"No," I said shaking my head. "I'm on your side for sure. But the fact is... You joined the dark side after she explicitly told you that if you did that the two of you were over. You left me, and Sora to fight for peace, harmony, love, and the lives of all the humans of earth, while you fought against us. Against all of those things, and when we tried to talk to you, you turned us down and made us leave so you could keep fighting for evil. And Fanglongmon wasn't even in your head. He didn't even affect you like he did the others. You did this all on your own free will." Yamato's mouth was hanging open a little as I continued, "Then in the breakup, you accepted the fact that you were broken up and left without another word. You should have told her that you loved her. That's what I would have done. And that you'd fight to get her back, and you'd do whatever it took—it's romantic..."

"You've been watching too many movies." Yamato said shaking his head. "I'm not a romantic person... besides—even if I did say all of that it wouldn't change anything... she wasn't willing to talk—she wasn't willing to change her mind."

"Well then," I said taking the scrambled eggs off of the burner and dumping them onto the two plates that Yamato had laid out, "As Michael would say it... 'Sorato is done-zo'... or something—what does done-zo even mean?"

"Sorato...?" Yamato asked as he figured out the meaning of the word in his mind. "No... We're not done. We can't be done... not yet."

"That's the spirit." I told him with a smile, placing the plate with significantly less food on it in front of him, "Just get out there and get her back. Don't let her go on without you—but don't hold her back—that would be bad. But give her time. Give her space. She needs to feel independent. You need to make sure that you two being together is right for the both of you... not just you. Maybe she's ready to move on... and you have to accept that."

"Since when do you know so much about girls and relationships?" Yamato asked, his eyebrows rising.

"Since ever." I told him. "I lived with a single mom Yamato. I'm romantic and sensual. It's unavoidable really." We both laughed before letting it fade away as we both thought of Mom.

There was a knock on the door as I slowly began to eat my eggs. Yamato jumped to his feet and left the room to answer the door. Before he got there I heard a loud banging, but I ignored it.

I wondered if Mom had a will... did she have anywhere she wanted to be buried? Of course I didn't know where her body was, but that didn't mean I couldn't place a stone—or a pretty tree with a memorial plaque on it. Was I to live here now? I was sure dad would allow it... especially since Yamato was moved out...

"Takeru!" Yamato called. "Come here for a minute will you?"

I pushed my chair back and stood up before straightening my hair as best I could and stepping from the kitchen. "What is it?" I asked him before looking up to the front door and gasping. My dad was standing there, with Wizardmon sitting in a wheelchair, which was all very strange—but it was nothing to the sight of the blonde woman clinging to Dad's arm with a smile.

"Takeru!" She gasped, running toward me and throwing her arms around me. I didn't move. I couldn't move. I was frozen. "I was so worried—so much had happened and I..."

"You're... dead." Was all I could say. It was enough though. My mother pulled away from me and kept her hands on my shoulders, staring into my eyes.

"What are you talking about?" She asked.

"I'm talking about that moment yesterday when Piedmon threw a sword at you!" I said loudly. I didn't understand—I was confused... nothing made any sense. I had seen Piedmon do it! He had thrown his sword—I saw the look of panic on her face as it happened... I couldn't get that out of my head—she couldn't be here looking unscathed.

"Takeru..." Patamon said flying over to me, landing on my shoulder and breathing through his nose. "She smells human. Dirty—but still human."

"What are you saying?" I asked him quickly.

"I'm saying that perhaps Piedmon tricked you." Patamon said in my ear, "It's his specialty after all—the other two were just imposters... maybe the third was too..."

I looked over to Patamon on my shoulder and then back to Mom who was standing in front of me, still looking confused. "The last thing I said to you... was to lay off and stop trying to help—but I don't want that. Talking to Yamato a moment ago... I realized how much you taught me and how much I learned from you—how much I need you... I need you to remind me to change my underwear and to eat vegetables and to watch out for wild animals—because even though you warned me I didn't do any of those things in the past three days. And I almost died multiple times—and I even watched you die. I need you Mom—and you're not ever allowed to die on me again."

Mom stepped forward and threw her arms around me again, sending Patamon flying off. This time I hugged her back, unable to keep myself from doing so.

"I'll... go give Rei her wheelchair back." Yamato said with a quick nod.

"Me too..." Dad said, spinning it around and pushing it through the door.

"Where were you?" I asked mom suddenly, pulling away from her.

"Well your father didn't show up to our... meeting—" Mom started.

"I know it was a date Mom... its okay. And I'm happy for you." I smiled at her, receiving a very welcome smile of relief back.

"And I thought he was standing me up—but it turns out the whole world was in danger. I was fighting to be honest... and then my cell phone finally got a signal so I texted your father and he came to pick me up right away. And the two of us stayed at my place last night."

It was as simple as that? She was just... fighting? Alongside the rest of us? I knew I shouldn't have doubted her—well I didn't know... but I did then. I knew that I could always trust my mom to pull through in the end...

"What's that noise?" Mom asked, bringing me from my thoughts. I listened and heard the faint sound of a vibration.

"It's Yamato's phone." I said, "Wait right here—don't leave—stay safe." I felt like an idiot saying it, but I just had to be sure she'd be there when I came back. I ran into the kitchen and picked up his phone and saw that the text message was from Hikari.

_Meet us down at the cafe—and bring Takeru, he isn't answering his phone! See you guys there ~ Hikari_

I smiled knowing that I'd have some text messages from Hikari to look forward to, even if they weren't anything special. And then, without any control of myself I was opening Yamato's sent mail and opening one he had sent to Sora last night—I couldn't help it... I was curious.

_Sora... I'm so sorry about everything that happened... and I know you don't want to forgive me—and that's because I don't deserve it. I just... I can't let you leave my life that easily. I love you so much... and if you won't let me be the man in your life... will you at least let me be your friend...?_

And she hadn't responded? Well I knew I had to talk to Sora later today... that was for sure.

_**Willis:**_

"Did you talk to Hikari?" Terriermon asked me, looking up with his big round eyes. I nodded slowly and awkwardly as I looked around the room to Taichi, Daisuke and Iori not to mention all of their digimon partners, all of which were staring at me.

"What did she say?" Lopmon asked, bouncing up and down. And dancing around the kitchen floor. I ignored her as completely as I could as I dropped the spoon into the food that Daisuke had prepared. He headed back into the kitchen—was making more—though I wasn't sure if anyone really wanted any more.

It was really good though—and honestly I'd never pegged Daisuke as one to cook but it was certainly better than Hikari's mother's cooking—which I wouldn't have insulted had I not already knew that everyone including her mother herself knew she was awful.

Lopmon and Terriermon grinned to each other as they successfully embarrassed me.

"Taichi, why don't you know how to cook?" Agumon asked suddenly.

"Because I have a terrible role model." Taichi joked.

"Daisuke is really good—maybe he could teach you!" Agumon said as he poured more of Daisuke's food into his mouth just as Daisuke entered the room again.

Daisuke and Taichi exchanged long a long glance before turning away. "I dunno," Taichi said, "Cooking just isn't my thing."

"Mm..." Daisuke said with a nod before turning and heading back to the oven.

"What did you and Hikari talk about anyway?" Iori asked me, looking to me, simply curious. I looked toward Hikari's closed bedroom door where she and Kurayami were hiding for some reason before turning back and seeing that Daisuke and Taichi were both looking at me with wide eyes. Daisuke's eyes almost looked hopeful in a strange way, but Taichi was giving me a look that made me want to run away and hide.

"We were talking about... us." I said as vaguely as I could, but that apparently wasn't enough for the hungry eyes that were still locked to me. Daisuke hurried back and sat down in the fourth chair at the table.

"It was about love wasn't it?" Daisuke asked, fairly accurately. "How did it go? I once told Hikari that I loved her—"

"Wait, what?" Taichi asked, but Daisuke ignored him.

"And she totally blew me off! Ignored me!" Daisuke raged. "Did she... did she say she loves you back?"

Daisuke had told her that he loved her too...? I vaguely remembered something about that—and she ignored him too... just like she'd ignored me. I wondered if Daisuke had been as persistent as I had been... would she have told him the same thing she told me? I shook my head and looked to them. "Yeah she said she loves me and stuff."

"And stuff?" Taichi asked with a slight growl. "You don't seem overly committed."

"Taichi," Iori said, "You're just being protective."

"And you know this how?" Taichi asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Because I have a little sibling too." Iori said flatly. "And I love Hikari like a sister too. And I almost died trying to be protective—I _do_ know how that works you know."

Taichi nodded slowly and looked up to me, about to say something but decided against it and stood from his seat. "Thanks... Daisuke." He said awkwardly before heading to his room with Agumon running behind him. Agumon turned back suddenly and grabbed his noodles off of the table before running after Taichi again.

"It's really good." Iori said, smiling at Daisuke, "You know, when you said you wanted a noodle cart, I have to admit—I was a little sceptical. But honestly... I think you could pull it off."

Daisuke was smiling more than I'd ever seen him smile before as he stood up and rushed over to Iori and hugged him tightly. "That's the first nice thing you've ever said to me!" Daisuke grinned.

"I'm sure I've said something nice—" Iori gasped as Daisuke held him tightly.

"No, he's right." Armadillomon nodded, "You really haven't... not that I've witnessed anyway."

"Okay—you're welcome then!" Iori said, embarrassed as he tried to pull free of Daisuke's grasp. Daisuke released him and rushed to the kitchen as there was a knock on the door. I jumped to my feet and hurried toward it, grabbing it and pulling it open.

At first I was smiling at the sight of Tatum and Michael, but their expressions told me something wrong was going on, and I was soon discovered to be correct as my Mother stepped into view.

"I'm sorry..." Michael mouthed to me.

"She found us at Jou's house—but you were gone," Tatum explained, "She wanted us to take her to you... we couldn't really deny her. Not when Michael's dad was on her side."

"He's our ticket home." Michael said slowly, motioning to the right as his father dramatically stepped into view next to my mother, both of them were staring down at me, one with a simply dramatic gaze, and one with the look she gave me whenever I was in trouble.

"Guys I have to go." I said back to the others without taking my eyes off of my mother. "Tell Hikari I'll see her later... at the... at her party." I stepped out the door and reached back to pull it shut, but before I could Terriermon and Lopmon slipped through. I'd almost left them there.

"Oh, they can stay." Mom said, her lips pursed and her arms crossed. Her eyes flicked over to Tatum with disgust where Monodromon was standing holding Zurumon in his arms. Michael was holding that egg that no one knew what to do with, still staring at me apologetically.

"Its fine," I told him, ignoring my mother's suggestion. I knew it was a demand, but I wasn't about to obey, so I tried to convince myself it was just a kind suggestion.

"Mom," I said to her, "Let's go talk outside... Alone."

"Sounds peachy." She said with a slight smile, her eyes mocking Terriermon and Lopmon.

"No," I told her simply, "I meant with them."

She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips before walking off down the staircase to the apartment building. "I'll be back Michael," She said to Michael's dad as I rushed after her. Terriermon and Lopmon climbing my legs in a desperate attempt to get to my shoulders.

The very second she reached the bottom step she rounded on me and exploded. "You need to stop undermining me Willis! I am your mother and you will do as I say! Those abominations are not welcome in my home, and you need to accept that or you will be grounded for the rest of your life."

I took a deep breath, trying to keep from replying as viciously as she was making herself seem. I had to keep calm and collected—just like Hikari always told me to. "Firstly, those 'abominations' have names—and they saved your life. So you could try being grateful for a change instead of always doing what you want and not thanking anyone else who makes your life better. Second—I'm an adult man and I can—and _will_ do as I please without your permission. And thirdly, you can't ground me."

"I'm your mother." She said flatly.

"In my house." I growled.

"I bought that house!" She gasped accusingly.

"With my money!" I said as calmly as I could manage. "You didn't think I'd realize? I was getting money for being a genius mother. Literally—you think you could outsmart me? You quit your job and started sleeping around with random guys and suddenly you had enough money to buy all of these nice things? I obviously knew it was my money you were spending—but I didn't care—you'd worked so hard the whole time I'd known you—which by the way, was since birth—and I wanted you to have a break."

"I never took your money." She lied through gritted teeth, shredding any last bits of trust or bond that I had so desperately been clinging to.

"Well here's the thing," I told her, "You're being a total... bitch." She gasped loudly at my language which, I had to admit, I wasn't proud of but it had to be said.

"Fine." She said with a roll of her eyes. "But even _if_ I let those creatures back into my house."

"They have names." I shot again. "And there is no 'if'! The only 'if' here, is the debate whether or not I kick you out onto the streets or not. You will let my friends come into _my_ home and you will like it—and you will like them. You will treat them with respect—like your very own children. Lopmon's a girl—you always said you wanted a daughter."

"I had a daughter." She said before looking toward me in a panic. "Never mind."

"What?" I said loudly, "You _what?_"

"It was a miscarriage!" She shouted loudly, throwing her hands up into the air. It was clear she didn't want to talk about it, and I couldn't force her to...

But I couldn't help myself.

"With dad?" I asked her. She nodded, and I smiled in return... at least she'd had enough decency to have it with the same man—though I couldn't help but wonder if it was before or after me...

"Will you just come home...?" Mom asked me.

"Not yet." I told her flatly. "I have a party to go to. I'll come home tomorrow—or this weekend or whenever. Why? Because I can. It's summer—I just saved the world, I have my two best friends back—I'm an adult with a beautiful girlfriend and I don't have to listen to anyone's rules."

"Hmph!" Mom huffed as she turned to walk away.

"Mom wait!"I shouted after her, "Wait... I want to introduce you to them." Mom turned to me, a look of shock spread across her face. "This is Terriermon... and this is Lopmon."

"Nice to meet you," Lopmon said, "Formally."

"Speak for yourself..." Terriermon said rudely, receiving a well placed swat on the back of his head from Lopmon. Both of them stuck their hands out to shake my mothers and for a moment she looked like she might actually bother to try and make peace with them, but she spun on her heel suddenly and stormed away.

She was pushed out of the way by Tatum as she ran down the stairs toward me and hugged me tightly. "I'm sorry." She said.

"For?" I asked.

"Your mother is awful." She said, shaking her head, "I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this."

"I love my Mom..." I said, my eyes closed, and my head tilted toward the ground. I heard Michael and Monodromon's footsteps as they neared us, and so I looked up. "Don't worry, I'll deal with it later. Are you guys coming to Hikari's party?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Tatum smiled.

"Do you think there'll be cake?" Terriermon asked.

"Probably..." I told them as I turned and led the others down the street.

"Dibs!" Terriermon shouted out, trying to beat Lopmon, but she wasn't even paying any attention. "Lopmon...?" Terriermon asked worried, "You've been really off lately... you okay?"

Lopmon nodded slowly and smiled before saying, "I think I know what I'm looking for now..." I didn't know anything about this—all I knew was that it had to do with what she and Hikari kept talking about, but either way, I was happy for her.

_**Mimi:**_

I awoke to the sounds of a crying baby. I was furious for a few seconds. Why wouldn't the baby's parents get it already and let me sleep. But only for a few seconds, like I said. It took awhile for me to wake up enough to realize it was baby Emiko in her crib beside me. I looked around for Tatum, but found that she was already gone. I sighed as I scooped my little goddaughter into my arms and bounced and rocked her until she quieted down some. I figured I'd let Jou and Momoe sleep a little longer. I wasn't going to be there forever, so I'd let them catch a break while I was.

"Who's the prettiest baby in the world," I sang to her as I made my way to the kitchen, so I could find some sort of bottle for the little girl. Jou and Momoe had taken time to set up a few before they went to bed last night. I was glad I had the luxury of a nice warm shower and immediate sleep. I'd wait _years_ before I had kids. I'd have to make sure I had the right guy, and who knew, I might've just got the perfect guy for me, not even twenty-four hours earlier, but I couldn't be sure. Not until we got to know each other even better.

I felt butterflies in my stomach as I remembered our kiss the day before. It was a perfect first kiss, even though I totally ruined it by inflicting pain upon him. Oh well, we'd have loads of time to perfect the technique.

"You hungry baby girl?" I asked. I'd babysat kids before, none quite so _new_ as Emiko was, but I knew the basics. Feed them and change them and put them to sleep. They couldn't do much else yet. Emiko quickly started suckling the bottle's tip, guzzling the milk back. "Are ou a greedy girl? You must be starving."

I kept talking to her and fantasizing about my own distant future when I had a baby of my own, until she was finished with her meal. I decided I'd better change her diaper too, while I was at it. Jou had picked some up at the Inoue Convenience Store on the way home. Momoe had run the cash register, even though she said they could probably just take it. That's what Miyako always did anyway. But Jou was insistent that they pay for everything they got.

I was sure glad they did, because there was no way I was going out to get some. I was quite comfortable in my short shorts and flowing, silk pajama top. My hair was a mess too. I wasn't wearing any makeup either. Not that I usually wore much, but mascara and lip gloss were a must at the very least. I had however thought to put on my short, shiny, gold robe and my pink fuzzy bunny slippers.

I was just finishing up with the straps on the diaper when the door bell rang.

"Just a minute," I said in the same sing-song voice I'd been using all morning. I figured it must be Tatum—and Michael and Willis, who had disappeared as well—and bounced over to the door with Emiko securely in my arms. "You're going to have to be quiet guys, I'm letting Jou and Momoe sleep a bit longer."

But it wasn't them. Not by a long-shot.

"Oh, good morning Mr Kido," I said sheepishly, dropping my sing-song tone. "Sorry, I thought you were my American friends."

"I assumed as much," he said. I totally knew what he meant, but there was no way he assumed I was talking to my American friends. It was just too obscure, so he should have been more specific. Jou was always ranting about how particular he was, so I figured it was definitely something he _should_ have been all over.

"Come in," I said quickly, stepping out of the way. "Do you want some breakfast? I was just about to start making some."

"If you don't mind," he said rather cordially. I couldn't find anything about him that screamed: I'm a terrible father! Jou seemed to think it must be obvious.

"Pancakes or eggs, hash browns and sausage?" I asked.

"Either is fine," he said. I shrugged, and pulled out the ingredients to make both. I found it a little awkward to work while holding a tiny baby.

"Would you mind too terribly if I ask you to just hold her while I get things started?" I asked after a few failed attempts.

"Not at all," he said formally. The only thing I had against him so far was that he was a stick in the mud. He needed to loosen up. Emiko fell asleep in his arms as I quickly went about making breakfast. I made enough for Jou and Momoe whenever they decided to grace us with their presence. "And you live here?"

"Yes," I said, putting the final pancake on a plate and placing it on the table. "Jou was so thoughtful to let me stay here."

"I take it your parents chose to remain in America?"

"My mother is a capital 'A' jerk, and told me that I'd be on my own if I chose to move back home," I told him.

"They are in the _entertainment_ business aren't they?" he asked. I could tell he didn't think that industry provided you with a real day's work.

"Yes, that's where our disagreement started actually," I told him gracefully as I took Emiko back from him. He may be the grandfather, but I was the godmother, and I wanted my turn. "She wanted me to get into acting, and marry a future movie star, but I couldn't handle that life, you know? I wanted to do something where I could find satisfaction."

"That was quite good of you," he said approving of me immediately. And Jou was worried when his father found out I'd been staying with him. "And the baby's father, is he not in the picture?"

I paused, fork halfway to my mouth. What was he talking about?

"Jou is the father sir," I said confused. I immediately regretted my words. Jou should have told him, not _me._

"Are you not Mimi Tachikawa?" he asked carefully.

"Yes," I said not understanding where he was going with it.

"Not Momoe Inoue?"

"No, I'm definitely _Mimi_."

"My son is dating Momoe Inoue," he said. His voice was louder than before. "Are you telling me that he is dating one girl and is living with, and has a child with, another?"

"No," I denied immediately. "I'm not her mother."

"So my son has a daughter," he said angrily. "He went and got her pregnant and didn't marry her immediately to make up for his mistake. Of course he wouldn't. I should've known he would be a disappointment. Shuu was before him. Shin is easily influenced, but at least he's living up to his potential."

"Now wait just a minute," I snapped. "Jou is going through university twice in one go! He's living up to his potential just fine. Don't go telling me he's the prodigal child. So he and Momoe jumped the gun a little. They're happy and in love and we just saved the whole freaking world, so _you're welcome_! I didn't see you doing anything about it."

"I will thank you not to use such a tone with me, you wretched girl" Mr Kido started, but the door bell rang again.

I got up in a huff—still being mindful of the sleeping Emiko—and stormed to the door. "Hello," I said angrily.

"Mimi, darling," Mom said happily from the doorway. I stared at her in shock.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, looking between her and Dad behind her. They looked so happy and relieved to see me. That couldn't be right.

"Don't walk away when I'm talking to you! I need to know just why Jou's _mistress_ is taking care of his child while he's off gallivanting with his girlfriend!"

"Don't you raise your voice to my baby," Mom shouted at him. "Do you really think she could be a mere mistress? Not on your life. Look at her beautiful golden brown hair cascading in gentle curls, and her gorgeous caramel eyes that dance with her inner happiness. No way is that a mistress. She's the leading lady mister. And no one would need a mistress if they were with her. So you can march your sorry behind out that door until you can talk civilly to _my_ daughter."

"What's going on?" Jou asked wiping his eyes with one hand in the hallway. He looked very dishevelled and was only in a pair of shorts and a white undershirt.

"This…this…abomination! That's what's going on," Mr Kido shouted pointing to his only granddaughter.

"You better not be talking about my baby, Dad," Jou said. "Because there's only one abomination here and I'm starting to think it's you."

Emiko started screaming in my arms, and I tried to bounce her to keep her happy, but she wasn't having any of it.

"Momoe," Jou said as she crept up the hallway behind him. "You might want to take Emiko on a walk. You too Mimi. Dad and I are going to have a talk."

Momoe looked unsure, but saw her screaming baby and her boyfriend's furious father and nodded quickly. "I needed to start working off the baby fat anyway," she said lightly, picking a blanket up off the couch to wrap Emiko in. Mr Kido watched, shaking in anger as she carefully took her baby from me—now that she was toasty warm—and slipped on a pair of sandals. She grabbed her cell phone last minute and slipped out the door.

"I needed to talk with _her_ too," Mr Kido told his son.

"Not a chance," Jou told him angrily. "You've got a problem with me, not them. You'll deal with me."

"Wait outside," I told my parents as I slipped into my room and threw on a sundress and strappy sandals. I ran a brush through my hair, and tossed on a white brimmed sunhat too. I grabbed my purse and ran to the door as fast as I could.

"Mimi, what's going on?" Palmon asked from the corner, making me stop. She, Gomamon and Bearmon—who Monzaemon changed into when we got home—were playing some sort of game with a package of toothpicks and a tube of my lipstick.

"Jou's dad came over and their having a bit of a tussle," I told them as lightly as I could. "You might want to keep an ear out though, just in case. I'm going for a walk with my parents. Do you want to come Palmon?"

"Yes!" she said quickly. She hated fighting as much as I did. I took her hand and ran down the hallway passed the fighting men.

"Good luck," I whispered to Jou as I passed. I could totally see his point of view now. His dad sure blew a gasket. I mean, they _should_ have told someone about the baby, but it was their decision, not Mr Kido's so he should back off.

The second the door closed behind me the yelling started up again. I headed down the stairs, and met my parents at the door. I led them outside without talking.

"Is it safe to leave him alone in there?" Mom asked nervously.

"He's got Gomamon and Bearmon with him. He'll be fine," I said brightly. There was no way Jou was going to get hurt physically. And he hated his dad enough to not get too badly hurt otherwise. I hoped so anyway.

"What are you doing in Japan?" Palmon asked my parents. Mom looked at her in distain for a moment before shaking herself. Something had clearly gotten into her.

"We had to make sure our daughter was safe," Dad told Palmon with a smile.

"I'm your daughter again, am I?" I asked, forcing myself to glare at my mother, instead of expressing the combination of hope and hurt I was really feeling.

"You always were," Dad said pulling me into a hug.

"I love you daddy," I whispered as I hugged him back.

"I'll always love you, Princess," he said back.

"What about you?" Palmon asked Mom, staring at her threateningly. "Do you know just how many times Mimi almost died yesterday alone?"

"Yes," Mom cried out, tears filling her eyes. "Do you know how often I thought about that? I feared for every second that it would be too late, afraid that I'd never see my daughter smile again. The last things I would have ever said to her were so horrible. I couldn't handle that baby."

"You called me traitor until two days ago," I cried.

"I didn't mean it. I just wanted you to be just like me," she sobbed.

"I don't want to be you, I want to be _me_," I told her. "Why can't you accept that? I want to train to be a chef. I want to start my own restaurant, here in Odaiba maybe. I want to live here, breathe in the culture I've missed since I was eleven years old. I miss it here. But I miss you guys too. I can't win. Not completely. Do you know how _hard_ it was to tell you that I couldn't stay there anymore? That I'd be leaving you behind, going somewhere that I wasn't sure if I could make it on my own!" I was shouting at that point, but I couldn't help it.

"Why couldn't you open a restaurant in New York, be a chef their?" Mom wanted to know.

"You'd be there, every step of the way," I all but screamed at her. "You keep trying to control my life. You made me switch countries, continents even, and took me away from everything that I love. I made new, great friends over there, but nothing was really keeping me there. Willis and Michael come to Japan all the time. Willis loves it here, he'd probably move here in a heartbeat if Hikari asked him to. And Michael has a private jet."

"You don't like Michael," Mom told me.

"Yes, as a friend only," I told her. "I love Michael, but I love Koushiro more than that. I really love him, Mom. He's over here. He _could_ be my future. I would have a restaurant and a little house on a hill with three bedrooms, one could be his office or maybe we'd have a couple of kids. I don't know Mom, but I can see that future _here_, I never saw a future in New York. Please, you don't have to understand, you just have to let me _try_."

"I would love for you to try, darling," Dad told me. "I'd even like to sample some of your soon-to-be-famous cooking."

"And you Mom?"

"I doubt I can approve of the boy," she sniffed. "But world-famous-chef sounds almost as good as world-famous-actress. _Almost_."

"Thank you Mom!" I shouted, tackling her in a big hug. Dad and Palmon joined us. We were a family again. An almost perfect one at that.

"I'm glad you're safe sweetheart," Mom told me.

"Oh, look," Dad said after we'd pulled away. "Do you remember that?"

I looked to see Mom and Dad staring wistfully at a nearby park. A park I knew they spent their first date in a long time ago. They loved sharing those stories when I was a kid. Dad even proposed there six years later. He was romantic like that.

"Mimi!"

I turned quickly to see Koushiro standing at the corner, a Tupperware dish in his hands and distinctly digimon-less.

"Koushiro," I shouted happily running over to him, and giving him a big ole kiss. "Good morning."

"Morning," he said with a smile. A light blush spread across his cheeks. It was adorable. "Brownie?" he opened the container and held it out to me. It was packed with his mother's brownies. I laughed and took one.

"When did your mom find time to make these?" I said letting out a happy moan as the chocolate melted on my tongue.

"Last night, this morning. She bakes when she's stressed. I couldn't do much last night, so she freaked out all night. I think she fed Tentomon six batches. He's a little wired, so I left him at home. Mom will take care of him. It'll give her something to do other than worry over me. I haven't told her about my shoulder yet. I'm afraid she'll assign me bed rest or something. I only just got away. What're you doing out here?"

"Just got away and came all the way to the east side?" I asked coyly. He blushed again making me giggle.

"How was your morning?" he asked instead, trying to change the subject.

"Pretty crazy," I admitted, looking over to my parents, who were still reminiscing about their past. I smiled at them. "But the end was pretty good," I told him.

"That's good," he said. I turned to him with a smile.

"It really is," I said, pulling him down for another kiss. This time though, I'd be careful of his shoulder. I didn't want it to end so soon.

_**Daisuke:**_

Hikari and Kurayami were locked in Hikari's room, and I had no idea what they were up to. Taichi and Agumon were hanging out in my room, well, it was really Taichi's room, but I was staying there. I didn't want to interrupt them. Taichi was actually thinking about sharing the room now. He wasn't planning on kicking me out at the first chance. I was just bored.

And when I'm bored, I tend to cook noodles.

I figure it's best to experiment at some point, so I can make my noodles the best they can possibly be. People pay for good food. My noodle cart had fared decently, I suppose, during the few months I had it open, before I signed up to work at camp. I was thinking of reopening it for good the following spring. Things were sort of looking up now that Fanglongmon and Dragomon were gone. I couldn't help but wonder about Daemon though. Did we ever beat him? Or did he leave of his own accord…_again._

"Something smells good," Mr Yagami said from the doorway. "Hello Daisuke. Couldn't think of anything else to do?"

"No," Veemon answered for me. "But that's okay, because I really like noodles."

"This isn't your first go at it today then," Mr Yagami said with a smile.

"It's like the fourth," I admitted. "I don't know where he puts it. Do you want some?"

"Why not," he said. I handed him a bowl of noodles, and at Veemon's pleading, tossed the rest at him. "Take a seat Daisuke."

"Okay sir," I said awkwardly. I wasn't nearly as comfortable with him as I was with Mrs Yagami, but I figured it was because I wasn't comfortable with my own father. I was projecting my discomfort onto someone else.

"How are you handling things?" he asked.

"You mean financially?" I asked confused.

"No, I mean the events that recently transpired," he said with a laugh.

"Fairly well," I guessed. "I didn't lose a parent like Takeru."

"What?" Mr Yagami gasped.

"Yeah, Piedmon had his mother tied up and apparently killed her right in front of him. I'm holding onto the hope that Piedmon used a Bakemon to fake it, but until Takeru tells me otherwise…"

"That's horrible," Mr Yagami said aghast. "Natsuko is a wonderful woman and a brilliant journalist. I hope you're right."

"Takeru's the only one without hope on that front," I said with a sigh. The only thing he couldn't summon hope for. He didn't want to hope for it and get let down. "I don't actually know if _my_ parents made it through…"

"Do you want to call them?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," I said immediately. Veemon looked up from his noodles.

"Why not?" he asked, tilting his head in order to further demonstrate his confusion.

"I don't talk to them," I said. "They don't want me. Not _me_ as I am anyway. They want me to be someone else and I can't do it. So I left."

"You couldn't talk to them?" Mr Yagami asked.

"Do you want me to leave, 'cause I don't know where I'll go, but I can if you want me to," I said suddenly scared.

"No," he said quickly. "That's not what I meant. I just wanted to know whether you tried to reconcile with them at all."

"No. They haven't even tried to contact me," I said sadly. "They don't even ask Jun about me. She tells them stuff, because she thinks they need to know, but they never ask."

"Maybe their pride won't let them," he said gently. "It's hard to admit you were wrong, unless someone extends the olive branch first."

"I don't have an olive branch, but I'm not sure what they'd do with one if I did," I said with a sigh.

"It's a figure of speech," Mr Yagami said with a laugh.

"It means to reach out to them, it's a gesture of understanding and peace," Mrs Yagami said behind me. "They are too proud to reach out to you because they were supposed to do right by you, to help raise you to be strong enough to stand on your own two feet. They probably realize that by trying to force you to be something you're not they've stilted that growth. But they won't apologize until you come to them. They don't want to seem like they are weaker then you, but they ought to know that they're wrong."

"I doubt it. I get my stubbornness from them," I told her.

"You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need," Mr Yagami told me.

"In fact, I love having you," Mrs Yagami said. "You make my cooking so much better."

"I just taught you to experiment with one thing at a time," I joked.

"Is she going to be cooking too?" Veemon asked. "I'll eat it if you want to experiment like Daisuke."

"My experiments never turn out so tasty," she said looking at the noodles. "But there are tons of leftovers in the fridge. Knock your socks off."

Veemon didn't need to be told twice. He bound towards the fridge.

"You know he'll eat everything, right?" I asked her.

"I need to go grocery shopping anyway," she said. "Well, when the shop opens again. Until then I've got some meals frozen."

I tried to quell the nervous wriggling in my stomach as I guessed just what horrors were in the freezer.

"Hey, Daisuke," Taichi called as he walked down the hall. "Do you know what those girls are up to?"

"No," I told him.

"Well it's Hikari's party and she's going to be late," he said annoyed.

"I'll go see what I can find out," I said hopping to my feet and running to her bedroom door. I wanted to escape before Taichi started to hate me for taking over his parents like he did with Hikari. We just patched things up somewhat, but I didn't want to test the strength of our new bond.

Taichi shrugged and turned to tease Iori about his nervousness for his upcoming date. The stupid date that Miyako was totally going to make me eat my shoe over. And he didn't like her at all, so that was stupid too.

I walked down the hall and stopped just outside Hikari's bedroom, the former office, and knocked loudly.

"You can't come in!" Hikari shouted.

"Okay," I said awkwardly. "It's time to go."

"We're almost ready," Hikari said. "We'll be there in a bit."

"Go on without us," Kurayami urged. I sighed. I'd really been hoping to walk with her, hand in hand, talk about our feelings maybe, see if we were going to try for a relationship or not.

"Alright," I said reluctantly.

"Ouch!" Kurayami gasped.

"Sorry," Hikari said loudly. "Bye Daisuke!"

"Bye," I said. I went back to the others, and Taichi looked up at me expectantly. "They said to go without them. They'll meet us there."

"If they're late, they're late," he said with a shrug. "Their choice. Let's go guys."

"If I have to," Iori said.

"You shouldn't go out with her if you don't want to," Taichi told him.

"It's just one date because I promised Betamon I'd ask her, and then he died," Iori said. "I can suffer through it."

"Tell her if you can't though. Don't force yourself. And let her know, 'kay? Don't lead her on too badly," I suggested.

"She's already delusional," Taichi said with a laugh. "I think he's already missed the boat on that one."

"C'mon Veemon, stop stuffing your face already and let's hit the road!" I called.

"Coming!"

He came running, with Agumon and Armadillomon tailing behind him at a much more reasonable rate.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Veemon cheered.

"You told him there'd be cake?" Iori asked, eyebrow raised.

"I might have mentioned it…" I admitted sheepishly, and I opened the door to let them all out ahead of me. I couldn't wait to hear the results of the vote.

_**Kurayami:**_

"You don't think it's a bit much?" I asked, still uncomfortable with what Hikari had done.

"It's really pretty." Hikari smiled at me as we walked down the street. She was smiling brightly, still admiring the work she had done. I was okay with the white dress she had put on me, but I was not willing to wear those shoes she had given me so I was still wearing my high-tops, but I really liked the blue cardigan she gave me—I wasn't used to not having things cover my arms. But the thing that really threw me off was the lightness of my head. My hair had been down to my knees—I honestly couldn't remember ever getting a hair cut... but now it was, as Hikari called it, a "pixie cut"—but I had insisted that she keep my bangs long enough to cover my one eye—in case I needed to glare at something.

Though the glare would lose its affect with the bow Hikari put in my hair...

I was happy though that she'd agreed to help me... I needed a new look. I was after all, a completely new person now that Fanglongmon was out of my head forever. I knew it would be a while until my mind was fully stable and back in place, but the freedom my mind felt now was like nothing I could have imagined. Even during the three years that he and I had been separated by a wall of dimensions, I could still feel his presence, lingering in the back of my mind, but it was clear now. My conscience was clear—my mind was clear—I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to. I couldn't help but smile about all the possibilities, but then I turned to Hikari with a smirk.

"You're only saying that because _you_ did it!" I laughed at her.

"You really do look good though." Hikari said confidently, smiling at me and nodding encouragingly. "Doesn't she Salamon?"

"She sure does!" Salamon giggled, "She looks like great! I mean she did before... but she was a little... rough. Geddit? Ruff?" Salamon started laughing at herself, "And when she gave me that look, I was petrified. Pet—rified!"

"Enough with the puns..." I said slowly as Hikari rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Girl, you are barking up the _wrong _tree!" Salamon roared with laughter this time until she noticed the look Hikari and I were giving her. "What?" She asked, "I've run out of cat puns, and this is a perfect chance to use some of the dog puns I've come up with!"

We both laughed at her as she skipped merrily ahead of us.

"You have a pretty laugh." Hikari said slowly, not making eye contact with me.

"Thanks..." I said, "You too...?" I wasn't sure how compliments were supposed to work just yet but I knew I'd get them eventually. Hikari began to walk faster to catch up with her partner, so I copied her, unwilling to be left behind.

"Salamon wait up!" Hikari pleaded loudly, as her partner slipped through the people on the side walk. I supposed it was a good thing she looked so much like a real dog, otherwise people would be concerned since the Queen had cast her spell...

"Hey Salamon!" I called loudly, "How do you get a dog to stop moving?" She froze and looked over her shoulder, "You press paws."

Salamon's face lit up as she began to laugh again giving us time to catch up to her. Hikari scooped her into her arms and turned to me with a smile, "You're funny," She laughed a little before setting off toward the cafe again.

It seemed almost wrong to me to be celebrating though... there was something missing, and I knew what it was. It was my mother. We still hadn't found her... so why had the balance not been shifted? Something was clearly wrong but no one else noticed it and I wasn't about to bring it up to ruin their fun... I didn't want that to be the thing on my mind anyway... I wanted to think about literally anything else... fun things—happy things.

Like the expression Koushiro and Mimi were giving me at that moment. First Koushiro had seen me and he had to take a double take, not sure if it was me or not, but it was, and my face turned red instantly when I watched his jaw drop. Mimi however just curled her lips into a smile before running toward me.

"Kurayami—your hair is adorable." She said as she ran her fingers through the back of my hair, causing me to blush harder. "Who cut this?"

"Me!" Hikari grinned, "Mom has some pretty good tools—she cuts my hair because I wasn't allowed out of the house much." Hikari was speaking as though it were obvious. Her hair, I hadn't ever noticed, but it was cut nicely too... she had it pulled back in a tiny ponytail at the moment, which I found to be rather adorable. Of course the goggles on the head added to her look in a strange way... Mimi dropped her hands to her side and smiled.

"It's cute." She assured me with a nod, before reaching down and taking her digimon's hand again. Palmon I believed her name was.

"Thank you Tachikawa." I said, folding my hands and bowing slightly.

"Mimi." Mimi said flatly, "I'm Mimi." She said, throwing her hand out in front of me for me to shake. I slowly took her hand and gripped it firmly as we shook hands.

"I'm Kura." I said with a smile. "It's very nice to formally meet you."

Mimi and Koushiro smiled to me and motioned for me to follow them into the cafe that was next to them. I followed them down the stairs but stopped when I heard a gasp come from Salamon. I turned back in time to see her glow and shift into Gatomon in Hikari's arms.

"Oh I'm back!" Gatomon said with a sigh of relief, relaxing in Hikari's arms, "I was so worried I'd reached the tail-end of my days as Gatomon."

Hikari rolled her eyes again as she stepped inside with me as Koushiro held the door open. Suddenly all eyes were on us and I was holding my breath. Jou was sitting with his wife and child at a table in the corner with Miyako sitting across from them. Mimi sat down next to her as Koushiro stole a chair from a separate table and pulled it up to sit with them, all of them staring at me. I looked over to the next table where Willis was smiling at us, motioning for Hikari to come sit with him. Taichi and Sora were sitting off in a corner by themselves near Iori who was sitting at a table alone, likely waiting for the annoying girl whose name I refused to learn. Yamato, Takeru, Michael and Tatum were all sitting a corner bench seat with two empty chairs on the other side of the table. None of them thought to say anything, afraid of embarrassing me it seemed, but that was better.

"We could sit down now..." Gatomon said, "I'm not really in a hurry... I've got nine lives you know... but I'm kind of hungry." Hikari smiled down at her.

"Not yet... there's one last thing I need you to see." She said, setting Gatomon down.

"What is it?" Gatomon asked as Hikari cleared her throat loudly. Suddenly a door to the left opened and a man walked through with a smile on his face before stepping aside and motioning toward a smaller man—who, upon second glance was a digimon. A wizard.

Gatomon froze, and I could actually tell her mind had stopped trying to come up with more cat puns as her eyes glossed over in tears.

"Gatomon..." The wizard said in a soft voice as Gatomon ran toward him and leapt into his arms. "Gatomon..."

"Wizardmon!" Gatomon managed to say as she sobbed in the arms of the digimon. Hikari walked toward Willis after giving me a wink and high fiving the man who was the wizard's partner on the way by.

I smiled at the apparent reunion between Gatomon and the Wizard before turning and walking over to sit down across from Tatum, Michael, Yamato and Takeru. There wasn't anywhere else for me to sit really, but I didn't want to think too much of what they'd think of me sitting with them, because I knew if I lingered on the thoughts I'd probably just leave for fear of them hating me.

But Takeru was smiling at me as Yamato ranted about some car. Tatum was speaking with Michael as he held tightly to the digiegg that he'd been carrying around. I couldn't take my eyes off of it as he spoke, but I eventually tore my eyes away. There was something about that egg...

"I really see you with a motorcycle though." Takeru sighed to his brother, "I really think you should stick with that."

"But I want to mature. I need to grow up and become a man, suitable to be married." Yamato nodded.

"Where did the fun Yamato go?" Takeru asked with a huff.

"To the bottom of the bay. With my motorcycle." Yamato said with a raise of his eyebrows.

"You can't change your personality." Gabumon said from next to Yamato, "You need to keep your options open, always—but don't force maturity."

"A very wise digimon once told me that forcing maturity upon yourself is a sign of immaturity." Takeru nodded.

"Who told you that?" Patamon asked from Takeru's head.

"You silly!" Takeru smiled.

The two boys continued to talk about their motorcycle and car debate as I trailed off into my thoughts. Partners were so... wonderful really. They were always by their friends sides keeping them safe from danger, and always doing what is right no matter the consequences. Demiveemon had stood up against Daisuke though—but he was just trying to get Daisuke to do the right thing... which was to leave my side... so it was my fault that partnership had been failing for a little... but other than that they were loyal and friendly and helpful—they were everything one would want or need... I reached into the bag Hikari had let me borrow and wrapped my hands around my digivice and crest before pulling my hand out once more, shaking my head lightly.

"Has anyone seen Kurayami?" Daisuke's voice cut through my thoughts quickly as he sat down next to me, "Hikari is here, but—" He turned his head toward me and his eyes popped open, "I'm sorry—I just—you're so... wow!"

"Wow, good?" I asked him.

"Wow—awesome." He corrected me with a smile, staring at me with a shocked expression.

"Daisuke thinks you're pretty," Veemon said, popping his head around his partner, only to receive a smack on the back of the head from Daisuke subconsciously.

"It's vibrating again." Michael said loudly to Tatum as the blob on the table in front of him hiccupped. He was holding the egg up in his hand as Tatum placed her hand on it.

"Then hatch it." Takeru said, turning mid-sentence from his brother.

"How?" Michael asked.

"Just rub it!" Takeru smiled, "It's like a di-genie." He smiled at his pun as Michael made to rub the egg.

"Can I?" I asked suddenly causing Michael to stop in his tracks. He looked toward me and then to the egg and nodded, handing it to me.

"I don't see why not..." He said with a shrug as I took the egg from him. It felt warm in my hands like it had when I had held it for him yesterday. I closed my eyes and I could feel a heart beat coming from inside, and the strange connection I felt with the egg was stronger than ever...

Slowly I opened my eyes and rubbed my hand up and down the side of the egg. With a sharp noise, a crack ran through the center of the egg and suddenly the top was flying off of it as a white ball of fluff with pink ears rolled out of the egg shell. It had a pink ball shaped tail and a large tuft of fur on its forehead as it kept its eyes shut tight, shaking. Slowly it opened its eyes and looked up to Takeru with a smile before looking around to the others. Finally though, the digimon locked eyes with me and smiled before leaping toward me and into my arms, replacing the remaining egg shell that I held.

"It likes you," Daisuke said with a smile.

"It's my partner." I said slowly getting a few strange looks from the others. I was shocked myself, but I knew what I had said was right. There was no denying the connection I had with this tiny creature...

"I thought your partner was Apocalymon...?" Yamato asked, "Who we killed—sorry..."

"No... I was his partner. There was a difference." I told him, "I never really met my partner... Gennai told me that when I found my calling I'd finally get to meet her... and then when I thought I was following the right track Apocalymon showed up—we were searching for the same thing... and I thought he must be the partner Gennai spoke of. But I was wrong... I know that now. Because this... whatever it is, is my partner."

"Paomon," Tatum said as if it were a very obvious fact. "I've never met one before... do you mind if I draw her sometime?"

"Anytime..." I smiled at her, "We both live in New York anyway—it won't be too long of a drive to meet up... we could be... friends." I felt more than awkward trying to spit it out, but once it was out there, I felt as though I'd done the right thing... I had to start trying to make up for everything wrong that I'd done... and that just meant I had a lot of work to do.

Tatum looked shocked for a moment and then nodded quickly with a smile, "Yes, I'd like that."

"Can we talk...?" Daisuke asked abruptly, standing up and staring at me. I nodded and followed him, jumping to my feet and retracing my footsteps back outside, holding onto my partner—Paomon tightly as Veemon followed behind.

The moment we were outside he spun around and got _straight_ to the point. "I'm sorry I kissed you."

"Are you?" I asked him honestly, my heart sinking slightly.

"Yes." He said flatly, "You were under Fanglongmon's control and I didn't want to do it without your permission but it was the only way to help you—and I wanted you back with me—I wanted to you to as far away from Fanglongmon as you could be."

"Daisuke," I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "I don't mind."

"You don't?" He asked, looking up from the ground looking hopeful.

"No," I smiled at him, "In fact, I actually kind of liked it."

"But it was the worst first kiss you could imagine." He groaned, "Girls like romance, and cheesy lines and cute flowers—and I kissed you while you were being controlled by another man..."

"Daisuke, it was the best first kiss ever." I told him quickly, trying to keep his attention—I knew how hard it could be sometimes, "It was perfect because it was with you."

"Wait what?" He gasped as I leaned forward and pressed my lips into his as smoothly as I could. I had no idea what I was doing here—kissing was a virtually foreign subject to me, but as he kissed me back with a strange force I knew I was doing _something_ right. We both laughed and came out of the kiss as Veemon whistled from next to us.

"Was that romantic enough?" I asked him. I wasn't big into the romance thing—or good at it... but it was clear that Daisuke was, and I'd be willing to try. For him. "Technically that's our first kiss as a couple."

"Couple?" He asked, a grin on his face.

"Oh—" I stuttered, "I-I mean if you... you want."

"Oh I want." He said, his smile growing larger as he threw his arms around me into a hug. When he pulled away we both stared up to the sky for a moment, the clouds blowing softly across the blue canvas as the sun beat down on us. "Hang on..."

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"Nearly four days ago you told me that you were allergic to sunshine." Daisuke laughed. I couldn't help but laugh with him as he threw his arm around me and led me back inside, motioning for Veemon to come stand by his side. He was so good with his partner... just like the others... I could only wish that I'd be that good, that nice, that _loyal_ to my own partner.

Which for now didn't seem too difficult as the baby fell asleep in my arms.

_**Taichi:**_

It felt good to be alive. I was well refreshed after hours and hours of sleep, and though my body hated me for all I put it through in the last few days, I felt happy. Food helped fuel that happiness. Daisuke had made noodles—which were delicious—and now I was at a little café or diner or whatever that Hikari discovered, and I was going to be eating again.

I hated our adventures sometimes because of the lack of food.

"How's Rei?" Sora asked at my side. It was nice, trying to return our friendship to its former glory. Dating her was nice, but it strained things. We'd had time to recover from it, and now we were fixing it. I was kind of excited to have my childhood best friend back.

"Fine," I said. "Her mom won't let her out of the apartment until school starts, and maybe not even then, but she's happy with how things turned out. She got to walk again, even if it was only for a short time."

"That's good," she told me with a sigh.

"What's up with you?" I asked her.

"Yamato," she said rolling her eyes. "I love him. I do. But I can't be with him anymore. Not after all he did. You understand right?"

"Of course I understand," I told her with a wink. "I felt the same about you after all."

"Really?" she asked sounding so hopeful.

"Yeah," I said. "Took awhile to get over you too. But I knew it wasn't the right time in my life for the relationship. I didn't like what I turned into because of it. I couldn't handle it then."

"Do you ever think you'll be ready?" she asked looking at Yamato and then turning back to me.

"Maybe," I said with a shrug. "I won't know until I try. But I think I _am_ ready to try. Something more than just a single date with one of Rei's dorm mates. I'm ready to try for a girlfriend. I haven't had one since you, you know?"

"I didn't realize I was such a demon," Sora teased. "Stunting your dating life like that."

"You're the queen of them," I promised with a little laugh.

"Everyone," Hikari called loudly. "Can I have your attention? Good. Okay. I know you didn't all like him all that much, especially lately, but I think it needs to be said. Gennai was a great man—digi-man, maybe—and we all owe so much to him. Without him we never would have been invited to the Digital World in the first place."

"We never would have known about our crests, or any of the battles we needed to fight," Koushiro added.

"We wouldn't have done our part, and the worlds would have been destroyed," Jou included.

"We wouldn't be the people we are today, all because of him," Takeru said solemnly.

"I wouldn't be alive," Iori concluded.

"I propose a toast," Hikari declared. She raised her glass of water high into the air. "For Gennai, to thank him for all he's done, and will continue to do through us and all those he touched in his life."

"To Gennai!" everyone cheered, copying her actions.

My sister was so thoughtful. I couldn't believe I'd never thought to do that. I'd been rude and cruel to Gennai in the time leading up to his sacrifice. I should've taken a leaf out of my sister's book and seen passed his front, seen what was behind the stress and struggle. But I hadn't. And I'd never get to make it up to him. I'd have to live with it.

Mimi was sobbing into Koushiro's shoulder mumbling something about Jerk-nai. She was worse than I was to him, everyone knew that. But we'd all cheered her on because she was the only one brave enough to tell him what we were all feeling. Was she going to be able to live with it right away? Probably not. Mimi took everything to heart. It would be awhile before she could truly put it behind her, but someday, maybe years from now, she too would move passed it. Hikari and Takeru were right though. Without Gennai, we wouldn't be who we are. He was imperative to our personalities.

I sent silent thanks to Gennai, hoping he'd be able to hear me. I kind of hoped that like Oikawa—Iori's father's friend—he would be spread throughout the Digital World, helping to keep everything running, just as he did while alive.

Sora burrowed herself into my chest, crying silently.

"I feel so bad," she said.

"We all do, we treated him so badly," I whispered.

"That's not it," she said. "I feel so guilty because I can't help but be _thankful_ that it was him, not Iori. I'm a horrible person. Maybe I really am a demon."

"Gennai himself preferred it this way," I promised her. "Or else he wouldn't have done what he did. Gennai was the only one with a solution. He was willing to follow that solution. It doesn't make you a terrible person to wish for our youngest to live."

"You don't think I'm a demon?" she asked sniffling.

"You know where I stand on that," I teased. She punched my shoulder but let out the laugh I was hoping for. The light caught something in her hair. I recognized it immediately. "You're wearing my hair clip."

"I remember you giving it to me," she said. "Therefore it's mine."

"You kept it? After all this time," I murmured.

"Of course," she said. "It was a reminder why boys were stupid, and it was pretty."

"Can we get on with the vote?" Daisuke groaned. "I can't wait anymore. I need to know _now_."

"Momoe, would you do the honours?" Mimi suggested.

"Alright," she said, looking to Jou who nodded. "What are you voting for?"

"Who gets the rights to the goggles," Yamato supplied.

"It's between Daisuke and me," I told her.

"I'm voting for myself," Daisuke said, starting us off in his favour.

"I'm voting for you too," Kurayami told him smiling shyly.

"Taichi," Yamato declared.

"I agree," Jou added.

"Taichi," Hikari said, sending an apologetic look in Daisuke's direction. He shrugged it off, but I could tell the fact that I was already winning was getting him down.

"Daisuke," Miyako threw out there. "But you already knew that."

"I vote Daisuke too," Ken said avoiding Miyako's eyes.

"Sorry, but I'm voting Taichi," Michael said.

"Me too," Takeru and Willis said at once. Takeru forced himself _not_ to glare at him, and stared at the table instead.

"I thought Daisuke yesterday, and I'd be rude to switch now," Sora said. "So I pick Daisuke."

That was a low blow, but I didn't care about this as much as Daisuke seemed to. He lit up like a Christmas tree when Sora chose him instead of me.

"Koushiro?" Mimi prompted.

"Tachi," he said. "I'll always follow Taichi. He needs his brain."

"Thanks," I said wryly.

"I pick Daisuke," Mimi said sheepishly.

"Daisuke," Iori said firmly.

"That ties it up," Momoe said.

"I guess we know the winner then," Daisuke said with a disappointed sigh.

"Here Taichi," Hikari said, holding out the goggles she'd been wearing earlier.

"No," I said, as I took the goggles. Everyone stopped and looked at me. "Daisuke led his team strongly and managed to lead them through the defeat of Fanglongmon. I let my little sister get captured by Dragomon. _Again_."

"But you did your best," Hikari said. "I didn't need your help, but I was happy that you were there."

"Maybe," I allowed. "But I didn't win the fight, I didn't even lead you to it. You did it on your own. Daisuke showed more leadership than I did. I vote for him."

Daisuke's eyes widened comically.

"You're serious?" he asked.

"I'm serious," I said with a small laugh. "You deserve them."

"Thanks," he said catching them when I threw them at him. He put them on like an old pro, and I had to admit, he looked a lot more like the Daisuke I remembered. And it wasn't just because of the goggles on his head. He was lit up. He was _happy_. And because of that, I knew I made the right choice.

"If I didn't deserve them, at least they get to stay in the family," I told him.

That did more to him than the goggles ever did. He was stunned. He couldn't honestly have believed I'd be angry with him forever could he? The misty look in his eyes told me differently. He was beyond happy. He belonged somewhere. I'd already forgiven him when I heard him and Dad talking earlier. He was more than a friend now. He was a little brother.

"I always wanted a little brother," I said. "Instead I got Hikari."

"Hey," she joked. But she started laughing when Daisuke pulled her into a hug, and she reached over and pulled me into it too. Our friends decided to be cheesy and clap and cheer for us.

"I've got three brothers now," Hikari said to me. "Iori's the youngest, _not_ me."

"Okay," I told her. "Whatever you say."

"Whatever I say is right," she joked.

Daisuke pulled away and ran over to Kurayami, and pulled her to her feet, dancing around and swinging her in circles. Her baby digimon was bouncing around their feet, and Veemon was trying to catch her so he could dance too

I looked around to the others. Hikari had gone over to hug Willis, prompting his digimon to make it a group hug of their own. Takeru and Yamato were talking excitedly about something (it sounded like their mother) and were carefully avoiding Hikari and Sora's gazes. Iori was tapping his foot and fiddling with his napkin, looking at the clock as though it offended him. Michael and Tatum were stealing kisses when they thought no one was looking, and chatting with their digimon, though neither could speak. Ken had cornered Miyako, and they were talking quietly about something serious. She nodded to him anyway. Jou and Momoe were staring into each others' eyes. They were clearly in love. Whatever was between them earlier must have been dealt with, because the tension was gone. The baby—who Jou declared Emiko much to Iori's glee—was in Mimi's arms. She was cooing at her every adorable move. Koushiro rolled his eyes, but he was happy because she was.

We were happy, despite the near death of everyone in the room, everyone in this world and another. We found happiness in the end. It was a really good feeling.

"We did good, huh?" Sora asked at my side.

"We sure did," I said, slipping back into my seat. "Better than good even."

Miyako and Ken stood up awkwardly, slipping out of their seat at their table.

"Where're you going?" Daisuke asked, stopping his jumping momentarily.

"We have something to discuss," Miyako said reluctantly.

"We'll see you soon, Daisuke," Ken said rolling his eyes.

"It's raining cats and dogs out there," I told them. Kurayami, Hikari and Gatomon all giggled at this, though I couldn't imagine why. "You'll need this."

I picked up the frog umbrella my mother had given me for Hikari, just in case, and tossed it to them.

"Thanks," Miyako said, pulling Ken outside.

"Well, they're downers," Daisuke decided, before swinging Kurayami around in a big circle, causing her to laugh happily.

"We're lucky the rain held off," Jou commented. "Usually we aren't that lucky."

"True," Takeru said with a laugh.

"Excuse me," a man said behind me.

"Sorry?" I said unsure. I wasn't even in his way. Why did he ask me to move?

"Are you Taichi Yagami?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. I was on edge now. He knew who I was. He wanted to talk to _me._

"Are you the leader of this resistance group?" he asked. I noticed he was wearing sunglasses, a black three piece suit and had a communications device in one ear.

"Who wants to know?" I asked.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said. He put his hand up to the communicator. "We've got him."

"I'll have you know," I told him. "That Daisuke is our leader now. We voted and everything. It's legit."

"The boy jumping as though he's eaten too much sugar?" the man asked raising one eyebrow.

"Yep," I said realizing how un-legit that sounded. "How do you even know about the 'resistance group'?"

"A few of our own have acquired digimon partners," he said. "We need someone to represent all of digimon kind. Act as a go between. An ambassador if you will. We've discovered you have the ability to move between worlds. We feel as leader of this group you are suited for the job. If you would prefer this…_Daisuke_ to take your place, we will understand."

"No, no," I said quickly. "I'll do it."

"Meet us at this location tomorrow at four. We'll discuss further details then," he said nodding to me formally before walking off, disappearing into the streets.

Things just got even more interesting for me.

_**Iori:**_

"Ri-Ri!"

Why did I ever decide to come on this date? Taichi was right. What I was doing wasn't right. Jou had taught me that there were times when you had to do what was right rather than worrying about keeping promises or lying. I was missing a movie with Natsuni for this stupid thing. I never missed movies with Natsuni. She was my best friend. We did all sorts of fun stuff together. I could be having fun, rather than trying to stop the clock by glaring at it.

"Ri-Ri!"

Couldn't someone answer her? Her voice was grating on my last nerves. I was freaking out about this thing. Hikari kept sending me reassuring looks, but they didn't make me feel any better. She'd lectured me all morning about the dos and don'ts of dating. I didn't want to be rude, but I couldn't help but wonder where she got her information. She and Willis hadn't gone on a date yet. She'd never gone on _any_ dates. She _had_ however decided to keep Armadillomon with her, so that he could 'ruin' things. In case I cared about that happening.

"RI-RI!"

I started to rub my temples. I was not pleased with the way this day was going at all.

"Iori Hida, you listen to me!"

"Dear God, she was talking to me," I muttered, noting that Takeru and Yamato were laughing at my new nickname. They'd better not start calling me that. I turned reluctantly and noticed Noriko was standing in the doorway. Her hair was curled—but no overly so. It was…wavy? It was pretty, so was the dress, but not even her pretty face could cover up all that crazy.

"Hello Noriko," I said as cordially as I could.

"No, no," she said. "You need to call me a nickname."

"I don't use nicknames," I told her. "I also don't answer to them."

"But Ri-Ri," she whined. "I spent a long time coming up with something cute enough."

She thought it was cute?

"What would you like me to call you?" I asked her.

"No, _you_ have to come up with it," she insisted. "What do you want to call me?"

Several things actually, that wouldn't be gentlemanly of me to say.

"Natsuni and I call you Harpy sometimes," I offered.

"That's not very cute, try again," she ordered.

"We also call you the Psycho Stalker," I tried again.

"That's not cute either," she sighed. "Okay, try this. Pick an adjective and a dessert."

"What? Like Fat-Cake?" I asked for clarification more than anything. I didn't exactly think it through. I was so used to talking with Natsuni about Noriko; it was hard to keep things to myself. It was like I wanted to be talking to Natsuni. I wanted her to be there instead of Noriko.

"No," she whined. "Like Sugar-Pie or Sweet-Cakes."

"Sorry," I said. But I wasn't really. I was still off in a world where I was having dinner with Natsuni instead.

"Aren't you going to pull out my chair?" she asked.

"No," I said. "I thought you could do it."

"I can," she said with a sigh, doing just that. "You just always pull Natsuni's chair out at school. You should do it for your girlfriend if you can do it for her. I'm totally more important now, you know."

She _'totally'_ wasn't.

"I want you to order for me," she said. "So you can show me how well you know me."

"What?" I asked confused. I didn't know her at all.

"I'm going to the lady's room to powder my nose while you do it, so I can be surprised," she told me, grabbing her purse and heading off to do so.

"You bagged yourself a crazy," Takeru snickered.

"I know," I groaned.

"Have you worked out your order yet?" the waitress asked.

"Uh," I stammered. Okay. What did girls eat? I only really ate with Mom, Natsuni and Hikari—but she was sick most of those times. Natsuni loved pasta actually they had her favourite on the menu. "The Bok Choy and tofu pasta? Probably two."

"Okay," she said taking pity on me. "I'll be back."

"She might not like that," Yamato told me.

"I don't care," I said. "Natsuni would eat it."

"She's not Natsuni," Takeru reminded me.

"I've noticed," I sighed.

"Have you ordered? Good," Noriko said coming back to the table. "I just know you chose the right thing. I can't eat a lot of food, but you already knew that."

"You have allergies?" I asked hesitantly.

"No," she said. "I can't eat food that'll make me fat. I'm not like Natsuni, you know. I actually care about my weight."

"Odd how Natsuni's smaller than you then," I muttered.

"Anyway," she said, ignoring my mumbling. "It's raining really hard. I almost didn't make it to here, because I didn't want my hair to get ruined by walking in the rain. But I had to brave it to meet you here. I couldn't leave you disappointed. My plans for the evening are destroyed though."

"I thought you told _me_ to plan it," I protested.

"Did you come up with anything romantic?" she asked excited.

"No," I said. "It was just dinner."

"That's hardly a date. You do that with friends too," she said with a sneer. "I've seen you do it with Natsuni you know."

She just admitted to following me. I couldn't help but focus on that fact. What else in my life did she spy on?

"I was hoping we'd be able to go for a nice stroll through the park in the moonlight," she continued. "Hold hands and whisper sweet nothings to one another as we walked. Doesn't it just sound divine? But it had to rain. Why don't we go to a movie instead?"

If I wanted to go to a movie—and I did—I would've went with Natsuni.

"We can hold hands in the dark and you can put your arm around me and it could be super romantic too. Well, only if we watch something I'd actually like. What do you think about that new romantic comedy?"

"The plot was slow to start, and the guy was a moron, but Natsuni swears he's attractive. The girl could've done better and didn't really learn the moral lesson by the end. Overall, I'd give it a pass," I told her.

"The lead actor looks a lot like you too," she said. As if I hadn't said anything. "I get to sit with you and watch you on the screen. Wait. You've already seen it?" she complained.

"With Natsuni, last week," I said. I flushed a bit at the memory. Natsuni thought he looked like me too.

"But I wanted to see it with you," she said. She was getting angry at me over something I couldn't control. "Oh well. You can just watch it again."

"I don't _want_ to watch it again, one time was enough," I protested.

"You're willing to watch it with a loser, but not your girlfriend?" she demanded.

"You're not my girlfriend," I said lowly. "And Natsuni is _not_ a loser. She's my best friend."

"You aren't supposed to talk about another girl while you're on a date with your girlfriend," she informed me. "Unless it's to rant about someone she dislikes. And I dislike Natsuni. You know, now that we're dating, you're going to have to spend less time with her. It's not proper to be seen alone with her."

"Good God," I snapped. "Do you even think about anything before you say it? I'm _not_ dating you. It's a single date, which I've made clear from the very beginning. I don't like you all that much. I typically can't stand your presence, but there was one moment during the last couple of days when I thought, maybe, just _maybe_ there was something likeable beneath your exterior. But there isn't. You're cynical. You're a flirt, and you _stalk_ me. There's nothing attractive in that."

"You _are_ my boyfriend," she told me with a glare. I couldn't even bring myself to feel bad about what I'd just said, unable to hold it back any longer. She just wouldn't listen. Why couldn't she understand what I was saying?

"No, I'm not," I said firmly.

"Hey, Iori," Yamato called. "We're leaving now. Have…fun on your date?"

"Bye," I told him a little harsher than intended. Noriko was ruining my patience.

"Good," she said. "Now we're alone. It'll be much more romantic that way."

"Noriko, listen to me. We aren't dating, we're just on one date," I pleaded, but I was interrupted.

"Here are your meals," the waitress said pleasantly, placing one plate of noodles in front of me.

"Oh, what is this?" Noriko asked looking at me in horror. "Noodles. Do you know how many calories are in this? I can't eat it. I'll get fat."

"Shut up," I told her. "You told me to order you something. I ordered something filling and healthy."

"But fattening," she sniffed.

"I'll just take it back," the waitress said, sounding frightened.

"No," I told her. "You're doing enough as it is, working right after the disasters of yesterday."

"I won't eat it," Noriko shouted at me.

"Then starve," I yelled back.

"Oh you," she screamed, picking up the plate of hot noodles and dumping it on the waitress.

"Noriko, stop being childish," I snapped, trying to help the waitress clean up. She started crying instead, and ran off to the kitchen. "Look what you did!"

"You liked her better than me," she hissed.

"I like everyone better than you," I told her. "Why can't you be more mature? Why can't you be more like Natsuni?"

"Because you wouldn't like me as much if I was like her," she hollered. "You like me. That's why you're here instead of with her."

"I wish I _was_ with her," I said honestly.

"What?" Noriko said with a harsh laugh. "You think she'd be a better girlfriend than me?"

"I know she would be," I told her.

"How is that?"

"Well, for starters, I actually like her," I said.

"But you love me," she said crossing her arms.

"No," I promised. "I don't."

"Are you saying you love her?"

"That's ridiculous," I said. But as I said it I realized it wasn't as stupid as I thought. Who was wishing Noriko could be like? How many times had I fantasized about being here with Natsuni instead? Who did I want to impress with my gentlemanliness? Who's favourite foods do I know without hesitation? Who did I join Fanglongmon's henchmen to find, at risk of my own life?

I'd even compared Noriko's kiss to Natsuni's soft lips…

"Exactly, that's why you're with me," she decided.

"No, I was wrong," I whispered. I threw some money at the table, leaving a pretty big tip for the poor waitress. "I have to go."

"Where are you going?" Noriko demanded.

"I've got a movie date I'm late for," I told her. "With Natsuni."

I could hear her shrieking behind me as I ran out into the rain. I wasn't far from the theatre, and I was sure she would be there. I was soaked seconds after leaving the restaurant.

How could I have missed it?

Was I stubborn enough to push away all of my feelings, just because I'd decided at a depressed moment that love didn't exist? I couldn't understand why I could have been so blind. She'd been there all along. She'd agreed to help keep potential girls at bay so that I wouldn't be forced to participate in the trivial art of dating. All because my first crush broke my heart. I wasn't going to marry my first crush. It wasn't a strong enough affection. We wouldn't have made it past a couple of months. Especially once she revealed her crazy side.

I could spend forever with Natsuni and never be bored, and always want more.

Maybe what I'd been passing for friendship wasn't exactly what I thought it was. Maybe I'd blurred the lines, trying desperately to keep a promise to myself that couldn't be kept. You couldn't control love. Sora had taught me that much. So why did I think I could force it to stay away?

The theatre was in my sights, looking a little worse for wear, but was still intact. All I needed to do was buy a ticket to that action movie and find her inside. I could do that. I didn't know what I'd say to her when I found her, but I had to say something. My epiphany was making me dizzy.

I ran up to the ticket vender.

"The action movie," I said. "Do you have any tickets?"

"The doors are closed," he said. "You'll have to wait until the late showing."

"I'm looking for someone," I told him. "Someone that was supposed to meet me here, but those events happened and I'm not sure if she came. But I need to find her. It's important."

"Iori?"

I spun around immediately. Natsuni was standing there, her hair was plastered to her face, as she waited in the rain.

"What are you doing here?" she asked me.

"I'm sorry I'm late," I told her. "I had something to take care of first."

"You're girlfriend," she said a bit bitterly. "I guess I understand. Well, no. I don't. You can't stand her. But I can try, if this is what you really want."

"I don't want that," I told her. "I don't want her. I…I didn't know what I wanted until I was with her tonight. Something she said, and suddenly fireworks went off. I. You. You're important. I need to be with you, or else the world seems duller."

"What are you talking about?" she yelled over the rain.

I sighed, and ran my fingers through my wet hair.

"I want to be with you," I shouted.

She stood there, gapping like a fish, and I felt like I'd said something wrong. Maybe I shouldn't have told her any of that. She probably didn't want to be with me anyway. I'd made her promise she wouldn't try when we met. And she knew how I felt about promised.

"Okay," she said, thankfully ruining my train of thought. "I can do that."

"Oh thank God," I said, pulling her into my arms. We were both soaked, and frozen, but it still felt nice. She looked up at me, and wiped her hair out of her face.

"I thought you didn't believe in any of this," she said.

"I was lying to myself," I told her. "I really want this."

"I do too," she admitted. That was enough for me. To know she was willingly doing this, not just doing it for me. I couldn't keep myself from leaning closer to her. She seemed to understand what I was unconsciously doing, and leaned in as well, meeting me halfway.

Her lips were as wet and cold as the rest of her, but they were still amazingly soft as we shared a kiss. The first of many that night.

"Do you want to go get something to eat?" I asked. "You know, before the late showing?"

"I'd like that," she said with a bright smile. "We could get a burger, maybe?"

I smiled and nodded. My world had been turned on its head so many times over the last few days, but things were finally making sense. Everything had fallen into place.

_**Miyako:**_

I was nervous. I wasn't sure where the two of us stood exactly, but I didn't know if I was ready to be alone with him in our current situation. Especially when we'd be huddling under a tiny, green frog umbrella. Why Taichi even had that thing, I didn't know.

"I was a little surprised by Taichi there," Ken said awkwardly. He was nervous too. Suddenly, I felt a little more at ease. I wasn't alone in that feeling.

"Daisuke deserved it though," I told him. "He really proved himself when he led us to defeat Fanglongmon. He's a great leader, and a great friend. Taichi was just finally able to see that again. I hope they dealt with all of their problems."

"I wish Daisuke had bothered to tell me that he was having problems at all," Ken said with a sigh. "We've been best friends for years, but he stopped talking to me. Well, about the important stuff anyway."

"It's probably because the two of us spent _all_ off our free time together. Maybe he didn't want to 'burden' you with his problems," I suggested.

"He should know he's not a burden," Ken told me. "He helped me so much when I went through all of that stuff back when I was the Kaiser. Why wouldn't he let me help now?"

"I don't know what it is, exactly, but I'm fairly certain it has to do with his parents, Ken. You have wonderful parents, that support you in everything that you do. They were more worried about you coming home than what you were up to when you were the Kaiser," I reminded him. "Maybe Daisuke's aren't nearly as supportive?"

"He didn't want to tell me in case I rubbed it in his face?" Ken asked sadly.

"Maybe. So, when are you heading off to school?" I asked, though it pained me to do so.

"I want to go, I want to start my final leg of schooling before I reach my ultimate goal: my career," Ken started. "But I don't know if I'm really ready."

"What do you mean?" I asked worried.

"When I think about school, it doesn't make me happy," he said. "Taichi and Yamato didn't even pick their courses for themselves, and they _still_ find something to enjoy, something that draws them into the idea. I don't have that right now."

"But why?"

"I…I've been thinking about it. I just…I don't want to leave you behind," he whispered. It was hard to hear him over the rain drops that landed heavily on the frog umbrella.

"I don't want you to either," I told him honestly. "But you have to."

"What?" he asked unsure of himself.

"You want to be a detective. Think about the goal. You won't become a detective if you just wait around here with me. I've been looking into schools you know. Maybe I'll find something to do with myself. I'm good with computers. I'm not Koushiro here, but I know what I'm doing. I especially like audio work," I said. "Maybe I'll find something I can use that for. A future career. I'm jealous, you know, that you've figured out your life already and I'm stuck here in the past. You have to work toward your future, and I'm just…not in it."

"I want you to be," he said with a sigh.

"I've been thinking," I said sounding deceptively reluctant. He cast his eyes downward preparing for the worst. "That I do too. But it doesn't matter. There might be a time in the future we're actually able to get together, or maybe you'll meet another girl in school and forget all about me."

"Don't cry," he whispered right in my ear, wiping a tear off of my face. But I couldn't help it. I was trying to tell him to live his life, and if he couldn't do it for himself, he had to do it for me. And the very idea that he might find some other girl that was prettier than me or smarter than me or richer than me or didn't have to wear stupid glasses, made me feel as though I was the one who had taken Piedmon's sword to the chest instead of Iori.

"Sorry," I muttered through my tears. "I just love you. And they say that if you love something, you have to let it go."

"You're not mad at me anymore? About Fanglongmon," he elaborated.

"I'm not pleased," I said. "But I've been thinking we've been broken up for awhile now and I just wanted to die instead of continuing to feel that stupid dull ache in my chest. And here I am, being the better person, and trying to get you to move on, and I'm just ripping that wound open further."

"Don't be the better person," he said. "I don't want to lose you. I _can't_ lose you. You know, I haven't been able to think about my future at all since we… uh… 'broke-up', because everything suddenly shifted. I was going to have to deal with it all alone. You weren't going to be there beside me like I'd always envisioned."

"You thought we'd be together forever?" I said surprised. "That's just the most romantic thing I've ever heard you say."

"It's true though. I've never been so lost before," he said. "What schools were you looking into?"

"I didn't look into yours, silly. Yours is a police academy," I told him. "I want computers."

"Oh," he said. I couldn't tell where he was going with this. "So we might not even be in the same town?"

"Chances are that that is a very likely situation," I said.

"Any chance you might change your mind about that?" he asked.

"You want me to go_ with_ you?" I asked surprised.

"I want you to be with me forever," he admitted. "Do you?"

Oh. My. God!

Was he asking what I thought he was asking?

"I don't know," I said evasively. "Are you going to ask me to?"

"I…well…yeah," he said. "Miyako, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever met." That was a lie, but it was such a sweet one. "You brighten up my day with every kiss, every smile. I can talk to you for hours and not realize how much time has passed. You make me want to be a better person, and I'd love to spend forever just trying to learn everything about you."

"What are you asking?" I asked tentatively.

"I guess, I'm asking…wow. This was _not_ planned, can you tell?" he said with a laugh. "Well, I'm asking you, Miyako Inoue, if you would do me the honour of marrying me."

I couldn't help it. I gasped.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** That's right, the update isn't just about the one-shots, or even about the six-chapter break story between the bigger ones. This is also to let you know that a third and final instalment of our journey to the epilogue will take place. It's going to take awhile to get it ready for updating, but we won't leave you hanging, we've got plenty of one-shots to post weekly, and then we've got that six-chapter story, similar—yet very different—to that of How Iori Met Their Mother, in its light and fluffy sort of tone. We're hard at work plotting and planning for 05, and we hope to see you there!


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